[MIham] [Fwd: Congress wants to shut down your access to the National Weather Service]

[Hank Kohl K8DD]

Congress wants to shut down your access to
the National Weather Service and make you
pay a company to access it.  I use
www.crh.noaa.gov
at least twice a day.  It's wonderful and
has no advertising!  Here's the article
from Information Week:


InformationWeek Daily Newsletter
www.informationweek.com
Tuesday, July 19, 2005


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1. Editor's Note: Your Tax Dollars At Work

The latest brainstorm from Capitol Hill is that American taxpayers 
should be denied access to information that we've already paid for with 
our tax dollars, because it's better that we should pay even more money 
to private companies before we can get access to the information. Not 
only does the legislation waste taxpayer money, but it also might kill 
people.

The legislation in question is the National Weather Services Duties Act 
of 2005. As described by our reporter Thomas Claburn, the bill would 
forbid the NWS from releasing information that might put it into 
competition with private-sector companies. It also forbids the NWS from 
distributing information if private-sector companies "could provide a 
similar service for a fee." Since the private sector could conceivably 
provide any service now provided by the NWS, we might as well just call 
this the Put-The-NWS-Out-Of-Business Act.

The availability of accurate weather prediction isn't just a 
convenience. The weather forecast doesn't exist to advise you whether to 
bring a sun hat or umbrella to work in the morning. Weather forecasts 
save lives by providing warnings of hurricanes, tornadoes, and other 
life-endangering weather. Claburn writes: "The National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration reported in July that there had been no 
tornado fatalities since March, a first during this period since record 
keeping began in 1950." Similarly, forecasters accurately predicted 
where Hurricane Dennis made landfall five days in advance, a feat that 
would have been impossible 40 to 50 years ago. While the legislation by 
Sen. Rick Santorum specifically exempts emergency warnings from its 
anti-competitive provisions, the warnings will be less useful if they're 
less accurate.

Now, the NWS might have nothing to do with improved accuracy in 
predictions, but are you willing to bet your life on it? I don't mean 
that as a figure of speech. I mean it literally: Are you willing to die 
to test out your economic theories about privatization? I didn't think so.

Mitch Wagner
mwagner at cmp.com
www.informationweek.com


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