Trump appointees have ties to companies that stand to benefit from privatizing weather forecasts

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-appointees-ties-companies-stand-113810376.html

by yahoonews

10 comments

  1. WASHINGTON (AP) — As commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick oversees the U.S. government’s vast efforts to monitor and predict the weather.

    The billionaire also ran a financial firm, which he recently left in the control of his adult sons, that stands to benefit if President [Donald Trump](https://www.yahoo.com/people/donald-trump/)’s administration follows through on a decade-long Republican effort to privatize government weather forecasting.

    Deadly [weekend flooding in central Texas](https://apnews.com/article/texas-floods-victims-camp-mystic-death-toll-ea38edadc7e965fb2c76c0ec46245a82) has drawn a spotlight to [budget cuts and staff reductions](https://apnews.com/article/noaa-job-cuts-weather-forecasts-trump-doge-musk-7e35e9d5d757d8fc3f0f50b2bd71c87d) at the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, two agencies housed within the Commerce Department that provide the public with free climate and weather data that can be crucial during natural disasters.

    What’s drawn less attention is how the downsizing appears to be part of an effort to privatize the work of such agencies. In several instances, the companies poised to step into the void have deep ties to people tapped by Trump to run weather-related agencies.

    Privatization would diminish a central role the federal government has played in weather forecasting since the 1800s, which experts say [poses a particular harm](https://apnews.com/article/texas-flood-climate-change-drought-rainfall-23bfa1a45d9897676b0fe27c81c6fa2d) for those facing financial strain who may not be able to afford commercial weather data.

  2. What… You mean Trump is doing something that’s not good for our country and helps Billionaires? Shocking

  4. The audio book The Coming Storm by Michael Lewis does a good job talking about the privatization ambitions.

  8. EVERY transaction will require a small tribute to the Czar. This is why they want to privatize everything — they don’t want any other government to benefit from their wholesale extortion

  9. I said it earlier, you want hurricane notifications? You’ll have to upgrade to hurricane +.

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