Trump taps AccuWeather CEO to head NOAA, breaking with precedent of nominating scientists
Source: Washington Post
Trump taps AccuWeather CEO to head NOAA, breaking with precedent of nominating scientists
By Jason Samenow October 12 at 3:00 PM Follow @capitalweather
(This story has been updated.)
Barry Myers, the chief executive of the private weather forecasting company AccuWeather, is President Trumps pick to run the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. ... The appointment of Myers, a businessman and lawyer, breaks from the recent precedent of scientists leading the agency tasked with a large, complex and technically demanding portfolio. ... The agency oversees the National Weather Service, conducts and funds weather and climate research, and operates a constellation of weather satellites as well as a climate data center. It also has critical responsibilities in monitoring and protecting the nations coasts, oceans and fisheries.
Myerss supporters say he brings valuable experience from the private sector that will help NOAA advance its capabilities. ... {I}n an Administration that places high value on business acumen, Barry brings a strong track record in growing one of the most successful companies in the weather industry, said Ray Ban, co-chair of the Weather Coalition, an advocacy group for strengthening Americas weather industry across sectors.
....
As NOAA administrator, Myers would be in charge of the Weather Service whose data are heavily used by his family business, based in State College, Pa. ... AccuWeather has, in the past, supported measures to limit the extent to which the Weather Service can release information to the public, so that private companies could generate their own value-added products using this same information. In 2005, for example, Myers and his brother Joel gave money to then-Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who introduced legislation aimed at curtailing government competition with private weather services.
Barry Myers defines conflict of interest,' said Ciaran Clayton, who was communications director at NOAA in the Obama administration. He actively lobbied to privatize the National Weather Service, which works day in and day out to protect the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans, to benefit his own companys bottom line. ... Myerss appointment is strongly opposed by the labor union for the National Weather Service, the NWS Employees Organization, for this same reason. As NOAA administrator, he would be in a position to fundamentally alter the nature of weather services that NOAA provides the nation, to the benefit of his family-owned business, said Richard Hirn, a spokesperson for the union.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/10/12/trump-taps-barry-myers-accuweather-ceo-to-head-noaa-choice-seen-as-controversial/
Ray Ban?
not fooled
(5,801 posts)3...2...1...
I don't even need to read the article to know what's up. Fuckers are looting the country, one piece at a time.
Had a discussion with a driver yesterday when I was a captive audience. He loves dump because he thinks we need a "successful businessman" running the country in order to stem the tide of creeping socialism. I gave him an earful but he is all for selling off the government. 40 years of right wing propaganda have worked.
irisblue
(32,933 posts)🤔 trump + Santorum....🤔
Matthew28
(1,796 posts)Privatization will take our weather service from the best on earth to one of the third world.
ONly the rich will ever be able to afford the crappiest form of warning. WTF?
BlueIdaho
(13,582 posts)Steals customer data even when they opt out of data sharing? Thats just peachy.
Nictuku
(3,587 posts)Definitely a conflict of interest here....
Matthew28
(1,796 posts)They steal tax payer provided model data, satellite imagery, radar and surface obs. Never in a 100 million years could these bastards maintain this sort of infrastructure. The goddamn poor republican are the ones that get hit by most of the tornadoes, hurricanes and flash floods in this country but they're too fucking stupid to realize how lucky they're to have the nws on their side.
Stupid bastards.
Initech
(100,043 posts)We just delayed it. Now it's here. Time to be afraid.
mdbl
(4,973 posts)I guess that's what twump meant.
alarimer
(16,245 posts)(except of course NOAA is responsible for many other things, like fisheries, which this guy knows nothing about).
This fucker uses PUBLIC DATA for free and then wants to claim NWS is unfairly competing with him. Some "capitalist". It is public data and we have the right to it, since we pay for it.
I can see it now. Different subscription plans for different levels of forecast accuracy.