Florida editorial: Don't let Santorum take your weather service!

The National Weather Service runs on public money, but Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., still wants to keep the public from getting much of the information the service provides.

Sen. Santorum hasn't given up on his bill that would prohibit federal meteorologists from competing with private companies such as AccuWeather and The Weather Channel. He wants the weather service to surrender much of its data only to private industry, not the public. To get seven-day forecasts, temperature predictions and rain probabilities, taxpayers would have to pay a second time, to companies such as AccuWeather. Sen. Santorum complains that businesses have a difficult time attracting advertisers and subscribers "when the government is providing similar products and services for free." But the federal government provides nothing for free. The public deserves to get what it pays for.

Forecasts meant to protect "life and property" — hurricane and severe storm warnings, for example — still would be available from government services, according to the bill's supporters. But vague language in the legislation raises doubts about exactly what data would be exempted and exactly when. Congressional meddling threatens to corrupt a simple, effective system for distributing information. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., says the bill could undo years of advances in communication and push weather service back to a "pre-Internet era." He points out that during last year's hurricane season, the weather service's Web site tallied a record 9 million hits.

The purity of Sen. Santorum's motivation is itself cloudy. AccuWeather is based in Pennsylvania and has contributed to the senator's campaigns and to the Republican Party. In fact, a $2,000 check from AccuWeather came to Sen. Santorum's office a few days before he introduced the bill in April, when The Post reported on the legislation. If Sen. Santorum's idea became law, the government would be propping up private enterprise with public assets. That's hardly new. This time, though, it could compromise public safety in the process. Congress should let this bad idea twist in the wind.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2005/06/24/m18a_accuweather_edit_0624.html

a private company gets it's information from the US government, which is funded by US taxpayers.. they repackage it and sell it to US taxpayers. That's a much more efficent way of doing things..

use it:

http://www.noaa.gov

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

His idea is to get weather service back into a pre-internet era where only his commercial patrons can distribute this lifesaving information.

let THEM run and research their own weather models, surface obs, weather radars, etc... They are more than free to do that.

They are taking an easy way to become "approved information conduits".

No one is stopping them from launching their own satellites.

What makes this especially irritating to me is that the public, by and large, hasn't heard about it. When I've tried to bring this up to people, I get the "whacked-out liberal" look.

Recommended.

Where do these people come from?