The Obama Administration picked a Snow Day for the federal government in Washington, D.C. to announce the creation of a new climate change office, as well as a new "climate.gov" web site, though none of it seems to be in the federal budget.
The announcement came from the Commerce Department, which proposed a new "NOAA Climate Service" - under the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
"The establishment of NOAA Climate Service will be an important step forward in helping the nation better understand and forecast the changing climate," said Rear Admiral Dave Titley, oceanographer of the Navy.
The press release announcing the plan had a great pun - you have to think someone realized what they were writing - in discussing how NOAA is being asked more often for information about climate change.
"To meet the rising tide of these requests," the release said, a nice play on words to remind people of the threat of elevated sea levels posed by the melting of glaciers and regions in the Arctic and Antarctic.
Of course, some of you have just read that and blown a gasket, because there are a lot of people out there who think this talk about melting glaciers and rising sea levels is a bunch of government garbage that is all part and parcel of those who believe in climate change.
Those folks will likely puke their breakfasts when looking at the new http://www.climate.gov web site, especially when they see some of the handy graphs which show rising temperatures, rising levels of carbon dioxide, rising sea levels and declining artic sea ice measurements.
"This looks to be nothing more than a fast track press release service," grumbled Anthony Watts, who writes the Watts Up With That blog, much of which is dedicated to raising questions about the work of those who strongly believe in climate change theories.
The NOAA press release seemed ready for those jabs, with quotes like this from Sierra Club President Carl Pope:
"As polluters and their allies continue to try and muddy the waters around climate science, the Climate Service will provide easy, direct access to the valuable scientific research undertaken by government scientists and others."
What is interesting about this move is that - as far as I can tell - it was not part of the budget for next year that was just submitted by the Obama Administration to the Congress.
In fact, the phrase "climate change" was never used in the section detailing the work of the Commerce Department.
But, there is existing authority for the Secretary of Commerce to re-program money intended for other items, which evidently would then be used to fund and start this new climate service.
It would start operations on October 1st, if the chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations Committee sign off on the move.
That is an interesting effort to make an end run around the Congress.
One would think that an effort will be made by the Republicans to force votes in Congress to block the spending of any money on this new office, once they learn about what's going on here.
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