100% Chance of Cloudiness and Privatization

Holy Ukko! If it weren't May, I'd suspect this story to be an April Fool's prank. But it apparently isn't:

It may soon be illegal for the National Weather Service (NWS) to issue non-severe weather forecasts under the provisions of the National Weather Service Duties Act of 2005, introduced April 14 by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. The bill's key provision states that the National Weather Service cannot provide "a product or service...that is or could be provided by the private sector", with the exception of severe weather forecasts and warnings needed to protect life and property. Senator Santorum said the bill would boost the private weather industry by reducing unfair competition from the NWS and generate cost savings to the government.

Just to cut to the chase, people: they want to make it illegal for the government to tell its citizens if it's going to rain. There are apparently no public goods which can't be attacked by Santorum et al. Not just attacked, but misunderstood and then attacked. In the fuller account of this story, a critic of the bill writes that private forecasts would actually get worse under this bill because the companies base their forecasts on the federal ones. Read the entire story for more of the argument against this idiocy.

(And why Santorum, who's usually much more interested in bestiality than weather? Because a major private forecaster, AccuWeather, is based in Pennsylvania. Of course.)