From the White House:
President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Nominate Key Personnel to his Administration
If confirmed, Barry Myers of Pennsylvania will serve as Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere, Department of Commerce. Mr. Myers has served as CEO of AccuWeather since 2007, and since then the company has experienced its highest grossing years, and its largest global web and mobile audience growth. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on the use of weather information. He has given remarks at the World Meteorological Organization, World Federation of Scientists, American Meteorological Society (AMS), and many other organizations. For two decades, he served as a member of the nationally recognized Smeal College of Business. Mr. Myers is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the Smeal College of Business at Penn State and received a J.D. from Boston University Law School. He and his wife Holly have five children.
I’m sure this nomination is a not good idea. Here’s why:
1. Barry Myers is a businessman and a lawyer. He has no meteorology training or science training of any kind. His brother, Dr. Joel Myers, does.
2. There will be, that I perceive, a conflict of Interest. His company, AccuWeather, makes heavy use of NOAA products. Given my personal dealings with him in the past at AccuWeather, I am concerned there will be temptation to monopolize access to this publicly available data. This is probably the only time in history I’ll ever agree with the Union of Concerned Scientists who say:
He has been a strong advocate against NOAA having the capability to provide such products directly to the public, hence the rather boring form of NOAA forecasts which is interpreted and commoditized by companies like AccuWeather and many others.
3. AccuWeather’s Meyers has tried to restrict NOAA’s dissemination of public data in the past:
AccuWeather has been active in efforts to undercut the role of NOAA. In 2005, AccuWeather, under the leadership of Myers’ brother Dr. Joel Myers, worked with Senator Rick Santorum on a bill to severely restrict the National Weather Service’s ability to provide weather forecasts to the public. The company donated to Santorum’s then Senate campaign and has been vocal about their interest in downsizing NOAA in the interest of privatizing weather forecasting.
Not a good nomination, not good at all.
Note: about 15 minutes after publication, a correction to Barry Myers name was made to remove an extra “e” in both the title and body of the text.
Barry Myers is a businessman and a lawyer. He has no meteorology training or science training of any kind. His brother, Dr. Joel Myers, does.
but maybe he is a good manager
President Trump needs a Bureaucrat with skills, stamina and talent for fighting against entrenched Obama Regime Vietcong Bureaucracy, not Science, not a Scientist. And President Trump wants Results and Quick! Good choice.
I’ll admit to having mixed thoughts about the prospect of people having to pay more for their climate forecasts.
I wonder if Myers was hired with the understanding that he would upgrade NOAA data to AcuWeather friendliness. That would make sense, if he’d go for it. He might—he may have all the moolah he needs.
Oh the irony of WUWT getting upset about this
What’s the irony?
Excerpted critiques:
Given the fact that Mr. Barry Myers served as CEO of AccuWeather, …… a privately owned “for profit” business, …… it was his duty and obligation as being CEO to increase the sale of weather information to any and all potential customers, …… and to do that, …… it would have been in both his and AccuWeather’s best interest to prevent NOAA from distributing said “weather information” free of charge to anyone requesting it.
Iffen you are in the business of “selling hotdogs for profit”, ……. you sure as heck can’t compete with someone who is “giving away hotdogs for free”
And the revolving door between gov and biz continues.. like anyone is surprised.
“Drain the swamp, then flood it again with my kind of swamp water”
I use NWS forecasts and updates exclusively for ski racing due to their topographical predictions. This is terrible news ! I hope this nomination is derailed, and people can reach him to lobby for an anti-AGW scientist !
I use NWS forecasts and radar extensively for all my outdoor activities including bicycling, sailing, tennis, hiking, skiing and running.
Nominating Barry Myers to oversee NOAA is not just a conflict of interest. It is nominating the fox to guard the henhouse.
I have always thought that the NWS was one government run organization were ‘The People’ actually got their bang for the buck. It is a great service for the price. Barry Myers has made it clear that he wants to do away with that service and have everyone pay AccuWeather for the same thing (or something similar to that).
NO THANK YOU!
As a former NOAA employee who has deeply criticized the NWS specifically and NOAA overall (to my professional and personal detriment), it is absolutely ludicrous to put Myers the fox (either one) in charge of the henhouse. NOAA and AccuWeather forecasts can be useful, with NWS forecasts probably somewhat superior overall in my opinion. But, the REAL purpose of the NWS is to issue advance watches and warnings for public safety. If the fox gets in charge of the henhouse, how can we be assured that there are no conflicts of interest? How much will we have to eventually pay to receive warnings, and indeed other important weather information that is now no cost? The Myerses and former Senator Santorum tried to privatize the NWS years ago for their own aggrandizement, including warnings. I can think of no worse outcome for public service. There are FAR better choices within the operational and academic atmospheric science community for a NOAA director, and ones who also do not subscribe to the CAGW / Disastrous Climate Change nonsense, who would guard the public service aspect that NOAA is supposed to fulfill. Any AccuWeather person would automatically be an exceedingly poor choice (except ex-AccuWeather person Joe Bastardi) in my opinion. The conflict of interest issue alone is enough to negate any AccuWeather person as a choice to lead the NWS or NOAA. We can all argue over the pros and cons of privatized government service, but in my view defense and public safety agencies by their very nature ought to remain neutral and in the public domain. There are only 2 or 3 things I have not liked that Trump has done since taking office, which is a VERY small percentage of all the things he has done (or tried to do); this would be the worst by far, though. In any case, a science director should, in my opinion, have extensive expertise as a scientist. Remember what Shakespeare said about the lawyers!
If, … if, … if, … IF, … Barry Myers is pro-choice, ……. prefers golf rather than football, …….. would rather watch paint dry rather than watch a Pro-baseball game ……. and doesn’t falsely claim to go to Church every Sunday ……. then fer shur he shouldn’t have been appointed to head a government Agency no matter how damn good his “past performance” track-record is ……. or how smart and competent he is.
Joe Bastardi, and his colleagues at WeatherBell, including my friend and co-author Joe d’Aleo, have the best predictive track record in the weather forecasting field.
For several years, the long-range Winter weather forecasts of the NWS were completely wrong.
Here is a recent example:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/01/13/new-butt-covering-end-of-snow-prediction/comment-page-1/#comment-2397292
A little recent history about Winter weather forecasts:
The National Weather Service (NWS) of the USA forecast a warm winter for 2014-15 and my friend Joe d’Aleo told me in October 2014 that the NWS forecast was seriously incorrect, and that the next winter would be particularly cold and snowy, especially in the populous Northeast. This was the second consecutive year that the NWS has made a very poor (excessively warm) Winter forecast, in Joe’s opinion – and he and his colleagues at WeatherBell have a great track record of accurate forecasts.
Joe and I had been working together on a paper on Excess Winter Mortality, and I suggested to Joe that this false “warm winter” NWS forecast was dangerous, especially if the country and its people were unprepared. Joe agreed, but did not know how to tackle the problem.
I proposed an approach, and we prepared a presentation for my friend at the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Joe then prepared his own monthly Winter Forecast by region for the EIA, who re-ran their winter energy demand calculations. Using Joe’s forecast, the EIA projected 11% more winter energy required for the USA than the “warm” NWS forecast had projected.
After that brutally cold and snowy winter, a back-analysis showed that the actual energy used was 10% more than the NWS forecast projection, and just 1% less than Joe’s forecast projection.
(Note: all numbers are from memory.)
So I think we did a good deed.
…
Regards to all, Allan