Congratulations to Rep. Hurd for getting his bill, the Snowpack Water Supply Forecasting Reauthorization Act (H.R. 3857), passed by the House. Hurd’s press release noted that “We cannot manage what we cannot measure. Water is life in the West, and accurate data is how we manage it. Families, ranchers, and water managers across CO-03 make critical decisions every day based on snowpack forecasts … this bill gives them better tools and more reliable information to plan with.”
Sadly, the White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought has already cut the legs out from under Hurd’s bill. Calling the National Center for Atmospheric Research “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country,” he has directed that it be shut down and its component parts parsed out to other agencies or abandoned entirely. The center in Boulder and its supercomputer center in Cheyenne will be closed.
NCAR is the premier climate and atmospheric research institution in America, probably in the world. Its job is to provide precisely the kind of data Hurd’s bill needs to be successful – accurate forecasting data. OMB Director Vought’s directive will make that improbable, probably impossible.
So now, it seems, Hurd’s team needs to work vigorously to ensure that the will of the House is not trumped by a political appointee who is, after all, in a temp job. I hope they are up to it.
Dave Throgmorton
Cortez
