Seed Corn On The WH Menu; Obama Budget Plan To Shutter NOAA Fisheries & Ocean Lab In NC

[hatrack]

EDIT

Founded more than 100 years ago, the NOAA laboratory on Pivers Island near Beaufort conducts research into a variety of marine science subjects, including fish stocks, ecosystem function, and the health of aquatic creatures. Its work has helped scientists improve how they forecast harmful algal blooms, and it set in place the first study of invasive lionfish in the South Atlantic, those familiar with the lab say. And it is the only NOAA lab between Miami, Florida, and Sandy Hook, New Jersey.

The Obama administration quietly proposed closing the lab in the president’s fiscal year 2015 budget request released last month, citing the tough fiscal environment. The lab, which employs 108 workers and contractors, has a roughly $1.6 million operating and maintenance budget. The closure is far from set in stone. Congress would have to approve the request as part of the spending plan for the 2015 fiscal year, which begins 1 October. But that work isn’t expected to be finished until late this year, after the November elections. In the meantime, some scientists and lawmakers are baffled by the proposal, which they say doesn’t have a clear rationale. And they are making the case for why the lab deserves to stay open.

“This lab is a vital part of the local, national, and international marine science community and provides important research and information for sustaining fisheries and coastal ecosystems of the Mid- and South-Atlantic, and to U.S territories in the Caribbean Sea to the people of this nation,” said David Eggleston, a professor and the director of North Carolina State University’s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology, in a 28 March letter to lawmakers.

Even if the lab is closed, NOAA won’t be letting go of the lab’s 62 permanent staff members, according to a presentation on the proposed budget. “Fisheries employees will continue the research they are currently undertaking at a different location,” the presentation says. It’s uncertain what will happen to the others. But proponents of keeping the lab open say they’re skeptical that the relocated NOAA researchers would be able to continue doing the same work they have long been doing at the Beaufort lab.

EDIT

http://news.sciencemag.org/funding/2014/04/opponents-assail-white-house-plan-close-noaa-lab-north-carolina

[newfie11]

1. Must need to build more weapons of mass destruction.

Screw ecology, we have toys to build for MIC.
Of all the idiotic times to do this!

[truebrit71]

2. Silly person, there is ALWAYS money available for war...

...all that other sciencey-type stuff doesn't equate to shit if we can't blow everyone else on the planet away...how will you preserve the American way of life without shit-tons of weapons we'll never use?

[zazen]

3. just as I thought: Rep. Walter Jones (R) in this district, who hates govt spending, opposes closure

http://jones.house.gov/press-release/jones-leads-effort-oppose-noaa-beaufort-lab-closure

I mean, of course one should oppose closure, and Walter Jones of NC-3, who is stepping down I believe, has opposed the Iraq War. But he consistently bashes government spending, and Obama since 2008, until it comes to something in his district.

Duke, Carolina, and NC State all have facilities down there, along with the local community college. But, they'd usually go to the General Assembly to keep replacement funding, yet our GOP Assembly is controlled by people who don't want any more research done on sea level rise at Beaufort and the rest of the North Carolina Coast.

[hatrack]

5. He wasn't the "Freedom Fries" guy back in 2002, was he?

And of course he's opposed to cutting this "wasteful spending."

[zazen]

4. maybe this is way to split Republicans in the primaries for US and state House?

Purist Tea Party types down here support pollution by Duke Energy and shutting down NOAA. Realistic Republicans want jobs and clean air, land and water in their own (wealthy) backyards.

This sort of proposition splits them down the middle.

Still, this sort of thing makes it look like Obama is trying to be reasonable with Republicans and show them he's not blindly supporting all funding of environmental research, whereas if they proposed increasing it, they'd go on record making even more inane comments about why it's not important.

And sometimes, a proposed budget cut is just a proposed budget cut.

[hatrack]

6. Yeah, but why bother? It's $1.6 million, which is truly chicken feed by fed standards

This is just truly depressing and STUPID. whatever the "real" motivation.

It's not even the Paul Ryan's of the world swearing that if we could just eliminate all funding for NPR, PBS and NEA, then we'd solve the budget deficit in one fell swoop.

[zazen]

8. I agree; but for such a comparatively small sum, I wonder why indeed _they're_ bothering

I sadly suspect incompetence rather than strategy, and either are sad.

[Nihil]

7. But, but, but ... "environmentalist President" ... "responsible" ...

... "Hope" ... "Change" ...


Looks like even the Emperor is boasting about streaking these days ...