President Donald Trump nominated a businessman who runs a media empire that forecasts the weather to lead a government agency that conducts climate research and assesses climate change.
Trump chose Barry Myers, who has served since 2007 as CEO of AccuWeather, a media company providing worldwide weather predictions, to run the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Myers has degrees in law and business, but no science background.
The White House called him “one of the world’s leading authorities on the use of weather information.” Trump picked him to serve as the Commerce Department’s under-secretary for oceans and atmosphere, which oversees NOAA, an agency that operates weather satellites as well as a climate data center.
Opponents of the pick suggest Trump’s choice is another example of what they call the president’s inclination to chalk his administration with people who have conflicts of interest. They also believe Myers could use his position to help benefit AccuWeather.
“Barry Myers defines ‘conflict of interest,’” Ciaran Clayton, who was communications director at NOAA in the Obama administration, told reporters Thursday. “He actively lobbied to privatize the National Weather Service, which works day in and day out to protect the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans, to benefit his own company’s bottom line.”
Trump has nominated several people from the private sector to head agencies within his administration. He and EPA chief Scott Pruitt have decided to direct the EPA and other agencies to place more of an onus on the impact regulations have on the industry than in previous administrations.
He picked coal industry lobbyist Andrew Wheeler in July to be Pruitt’s second lieutenant.
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NOAA needs a new captian the one under Obama was acting more like a pirate
With the continued fraud by NOAA even under the Trump administration it is clear that new leadership is desperately needed. However, Barry Myers is not a good choice due to his lacking background in science. I used to work for an aerospace company. It was originally run by engineers who had worked their way up. When people from other backgrounds assumed the leadership, mistakes were made that engineers were unlikely to make. There is no substitute for having an understanding of what you are in charge of.