Senator Santorum: No Free Weather Reports for You

[Nordmadr]

Here are some key things from this doozy of a proposal:

(b) COMPETITION WITH PRIVATE SECTOR- The Secretary of Commerce shall not provide, or assist other entities in providing, a product or service (other than a product or service described in subsection (a)(1)) that is or could be provided by the private sector unless--

(1) the Secretary determines that the private sector is unwilling or unable to provide such product or service; or

(2) the United States Government is obligated to provide such product or service under international aviation agreements to provide meteorological services and exchange meteorological information.

(c) ISSUANCE OF DATA, FORECASTS, AND WARNINGS-

(1) IN GENERAL- All data, information, guidance, forecasts, and warnings received, collected, created, or prepared by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or the National Weather Service shall, to the maximum extent practicable, be issued in real time, and without delay for internal use, in a manner that ensures that all members of the public have the opportunity for simultaneous and equal access to such data, information, guidance, forecasts, and warnings.

(2) MODE OF ISSUANCE- Data, information, guidance, forecasts, and warnings shall be issued under paragraph (1) through a set of data portals designed for volume access by commercial providers of products or services and by such other mechanisms as the Secretary of Commerce considers appropriate for purposes of that paragraph.

(d) PROHIBITION ON CERTAIN DISCLOSURES- An officer, employee, or agent of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Weather Service, or any other department or agency of the United States who by reason of that status comes into possession of any weather data, information, guidance, forecast, or warning that might influence or affect the market value of any product, service, commodity, tradable, or business may not--

(1) willfully impart, whether directly or indirectly, such weather data, information, guidance, forecast, or warning, or any part thereof, before the issuance of such weather data, information, guidance, forecast, or warning to the public under subsection (c); or

(2) after the issuance of such weather data, information, guidance, forecast, or warning to the public under subsection (c), willfully impart comments or qualifications on such weather data, information, guidance, forecast, or warning, or any part thereof, to the public, except pursuant to an issuance that complies with that subsection.

So if I am understanding this correctly:

1) The weather service will not be allowed to provide the weather to private citizens directly for free, well, not free, our taxes pay for it the first time; but instead must provide the data through "through a set of data portals designed for volume access by commercial providers of products or services ". Commercial providers. Got that.

2) You may not tell anyone about the weather especially if your report could hurt some big money folks finacially. You see, it has to be filtered through a COMMERCIAL vendor first. After the weather is released publicly by them, as an employee of the NWS, you may still not offer any qualifiers or warnings, say for example, if the COMMERCIAL vendors happen to leave something out, because, well, you know, that could be like bad for the economy and stuff.

In other words...PISS OFF AMERICAN CITIZENS, UNLESS YOU ARE A RICH CORPORATE ELITIST LOOKING TO MAKE A BUCK BY FUCKING THE LITLE GUY.

Can't breathe...rage taking over...

Link Added (PDF): http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_bills&docid=f:s786is.txt.pdf
Olafr

[texpatriot2004]

1. Leave the DAMN weather service alone you greedy bastard. nt

[trotsky]

2. Best of both worlds for corporations and their whores.

Gov't pays to create the information, corporations get it for free and can turn around and sell it.

I thought these bastards believed in the FREE MARKET?

[Nictuku]

6. I know what this is all about....

I lived in Pennsylvania for about a 1 1/2 years and worked for AccuWeather when I was there.

Accuweather sells weather data to newspapers, and television stations all across the country, and even internationally.

They are based in State College, Pennsylvania.

They are extremely competitive, and there was only 1 other major competitor at the time.

They get their data from NOAA, and then merge it with their own maps, and then sell it to their customers for a huge profit.

Anyway, it seems pretty obvious to me who has been lobbying this Senator.

Big Business, once again.

[PA Democrat]

3. Gee, there wouldn't by chance be a connection between this proposal

and the $2,000 donation to Santorum from the chief executive of AccuWeather Inc., a leading private provider of weather data?

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=795841&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

[asthmaticeog]

18. ?

$2,000? He would geld the NOAA for $2,000? God damn, he's a cheap date.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

4. Can't somebody give Ricky a foetus to play with or something

so he can leave the rest of us (and the weather service) ALONE?

:grr:

[LynneSin]

5. Why is this not fricking investigated like the Abramoff stuff

They donate to Rick Santorum and the next day he comes out and says "NO" to free weather which would benefit the group that donated to him.

I've boycotted all newstations that use Accu-weather. There is usually one one in each major media market and at least one that gets it from the National Weather service.

This is just one more reason to get that asshole out of office

[Nictuku]

9. Accu-weather humor

Accu-weather had 82 meteorologists when I worked there, and the big story was that even with an army like that, they totally mis-forcasted a nor-eastern huge winter storm that came ashore... and hit them in State College PA.

[flamin lib]

7. I used the local NOAA office to determine what the best hour to

paint my sailboat a few years back. The temp had to be between 68 & 80 degrees and the humidity had to be a specified level. Talked to the fellow on the phone and he went back a week and checked it against the forecast. I could start as early as 9:00 AM and had to be finished by 11:30 AM.

This is what my tax dollars bought me. Santorum can stuff it.

[MuseRider]

8. Hmmm

I guess the little creep doen't spend much time in tornado alley where a weather report every 5 minutes can save your ass. Not to mention any other kind of weather.

[Nordmadr]

10. So, you know, if the NWS finds out a big hurricane is

coming, and it is likely to do some serious damage to say, Florida for example. This storm is very likely to destroy some serious orange crop. As a dutiful government employee you provide this info to Accuweather for free. Accuweather, before releasing their report, decide to tone it down a bit, don't want anyone freaking out, or pulling out of their orange stocks. You as a dutiful employee, realize this has been done, and want to let everyone know, but instead you can do NOTHING.

Perhaps a bad example, but first to pop into mind.

How can these people look at themselves in the mirror? Do they take pride in being despicable pieces of shit?

Olafr

[MuseRider]

12. The way things are going

I think they aspire to be despicable pieces of shit. :shrug:

Good example though, I liked it.

[Roland99]

11. Bad link....btw, is this still going on? I think this died out?

Amazing Sanitorium is still trying to push this in favor of his political campaign donor.

[Nordmadr]

13. Fixed link, it was linking to the query. Status is

S.786
Title: A bill to clarify the duties and responsibilities of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service, and for other purposes.

Sponsor: Sen Santorum, Rick (introduced 4/14/2005)
Cosponsors (None)

Latest Major Action: 4/14/2005 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Olafr

[Roland99]

14. April 2005. Is this proposed legislation still viable or is it dead?

[Nordmadr]

15. Still in commitee as far as I can tell. N/T

[Roland99]

16. Hopefully it will stay there until Santorum loses in '06!

[Pathwalker]

17. Too bad, Ricky, I got a weather station for the Holiday!

with a remote sensor for my greenhouse! Whenever I tell anyone about this bill, they get really, really pissed! I wonder how the farmers of Pennsylvania feel about Ricky's idea?