| A conservative Republican
senator who proposed that federal meteorologists be
forbidden from competing with companies such as AccuWeather
and the Weather Channel, has received nearly $4,000
from AccuWeather's founder and executive vice president
since 2000, RAW STORY
has discovered.
Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) introduced the bill last
week. The senator's supporters (among them the founder
and executive vice president of AccuWeather) note the
bill provides an exemption that would allow organizations
the National Hurricane Center from alerting the public
to hazards.
"The National Weather Service has not focused
on what its core mission should be, which is protecting
other people's lives and property," said Barry
Myers, the Executive Vice President of AccuWeather told
the Palm Beach Post Thursday.
"It spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year,
every day, producing forecasts of 'warm and sunny.'"
Myers gave $1,000 to Santorum in the last election
cycle. Santorum was the only senator Myers financially
supported.
AccuWeather's 15,000 clients include Post,
which utilizes the firm's hurricane forecast maps on
PalmBeachPost.com. The Post failed to include
mention of Myers contributions.
Myers' brother, Joel, founder, CEO and president of
AccuWeather, has also given generously to Santorum over
the years—more than $2,000 in the last election
cycle alone.
A spokesman for Florida's Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson
was taken aback by Santorum's bill, questioning the
intelligence of a bill that the senator believes might
be dangerous in the wake of several hurricanes.
"The weather service proved so instrumental and
popular and helpful in the wake of the hurricanes,"
Nelson spokesman Dan McLaughlin told the Post.
"How can you make an argument that we should pull
it off the Net now? What are you going to do, charge
hurricane victims to go online, or give them a pop-up
ad?"
In a release Apr. 14, Santorum
said the bill was sorely needed.
“With the support of my colleagues, we can pass
this legislation to modernize the description of the
National Weather Service’s roles within the national
weather enterprise, so that it reflects today’s
reality in which the National Weather Service and the
commercial weather industry both play important parts
in providing weather products and services to the nation,”
Santorum said.
Read the full Palm
Beach Post story here.
Article originally published Apr. 21, 2005.
|
