After contacting Islander for permission (thank you) I ask each of you to take a few moments today to write your Senators in opposition of a new bill in committee in the US Senate. Free NOAA weather radio could go the way of the eight-track tape player if Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) has his way.

Legislation introduced by Santorum, S. 786, would restrict NOAA’s broadcasting to emergency weather, like hurricanes and tornados and permit private companies like AccuWeather and The Weather Channel to get all of its daily weather information from NOAA for free. These companies would then turn around and sell the continuous weather updates to the public that NOAA used to provide free of charge.

Such a drastic change in the public’s access to critical weather information could endanger the safety of not only boat owners who routinely rely on this information to make basic decisions about when to head out of port or when to return but also home owners and renters who need this information in time to prepare for any impending storms.

S. 786 would only allow NOAA to issue severe weather warnings to the public when conditions were life threatening. The bill would save no money for the government because in order to issue such warnings, all the routine data collection and monitoring work must go on regardless. In addition, the “non-critical” data for boaters, such as tides, wind direction, speed and movement of fronts, can be just as important as storm warnings.

BoatUS, a wonderful boating organization, has prepared a sample letter you can use http://www.boatus.com/gov/Sample786ltr.doc and a list of your government representatives at http://www.boatus.com/gov/contact.htm.

Thanks to BoatUS for a wonderful job. And thank each of you for taking the time to address this important issue.

Pamela Wilson, General Manager
Virgin Islands Charteryacht League