Barry Lee Myers

The former CEO of his family’s for-profit weather-forecasting company AccuWeather, Myers has long lobbied to restrict access to publicly-funded National Weather Service data.

Under Secretary of Commerce of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Nominated)

Nomination withdrawn

The former CEO of his family’s for-profit weather-forecasting company AccuWeather, Barry Lee Myers has for years lobbied to restrict the National Weather Service (a publicly funded government entity) from providing free weather forecasting to the public.

Specifically, Myers and his family have lobbied for legislation that would force the public to subscribe to private weather services such as AccuWeather to receive information which had been collected by publicly owned and operated weather satellites. The same satellites, in fact, that AccuWeather itself relies on for virtually all of its data.

Barry Lee Myers | ProPublica: Trump Town

Notables

Every prior NOAA administrator held science degrees except one; Myers would’ve made the second such administrator lacking education in his field.

Trump NOAA administrator nominee breaks with precedent of scientists | Washington Post (10.12.17)

An attorney for the National Weather Service Employees Organization explained: “We fear that he wants to turn the weather service into a taxpayer-funded subsidiary of AccuWeather.”