Free Wx Under Threat…

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Making Users Pay

The National Weather Service (NWS) would be restricted from offering any products to the public that are or could be provided by the commercial weather industry, under legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate recently by Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). The “National Weather Services Duties Act of 2005” would “modernize the description of the National Weather Service’s roles within the national weather enterprise,” Santorum said, and essentially it would yank the popular NWS Web site off the Internet. The bill already has attracted opposition among those who value NWS products. “The weather service proved so instrumental and popular and helpful in the wake of the hurricanes. How can you make an argument that we should pull it off the Net now?” said Dan McLaughlin, spokesman for Sen. Bill Nelson, (D-Fla.), in The Palm Beach Post. “What are you going to do, charge hurricane victims to go online, or give them a pop-up ad?”

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