By Jason Samenow, Capitol Weather Gang, Washington Post
Less than three weeks after resigning as AccuWeather’s chief long-range forecaster, Joe Bastardi announced Friday that he has accepted the position of chief forecaster at WeatherBell, a fledgling weather consulting firm.
WeatherBell has also hired veteran meteorologist Joseph D’Aleo, who served as the Weather Channel’s first director of meteorology.
Based in New York City, WeatherBell Analytics LLC will offer meteorological products and services geared toward helping businesses manage weather risk. The company is funded entirely by angel investors. Chief executive officer Michael Barak said the name of company was inspired by someone close to him.
The company will target the financial, agriculture, and energy sectors, said Barak. It intends to leverage the forecasting talents of Bastardi and D’Aleo to help businesses in these sectors make the best decisions, he said.
“We will provide the most accurate forecasts anywhere, and because of this our clients will be able to adjust their business strategy and maximize profits,” said Barak.
WeatherBell has partnered with Skyline Software Systems, Inc., a 3D geospatial visualization software and services company based in Chantilly, Va. Skyline’s suite of web-based software will allow WeatherBell customers to fuse their own data with weather data and forecasts.
Barak, 27, previously worked as a vice president at an aerospace engineering firm. Although he has had a passion for weather since childhood, he is not a meteorologist and stressed that Bastardi will be given complete independence in developing his forecasts.
“Joe will have unlimited freedom at WeatherBell, and you can expect to see that enthusiastic bold forecaster many of us have followed for years,” he said.
Bastardi says he is relishing the opportunity to help build a new forecasting enterprise.
“WeatherBell will give me the chance to display my ability and my good name in the way I am most suited,” he said. “I look forward to building from the ground up an operation that will become the standard in private sector forecasting.”
Bastardi said it was a “difficult decision” to leave AccuWeather after 33 years without providing reasons for his departure. “I wish my former employer well just as they have wished me well, but I would like to keep my reasons for leaving private,” he said. While at AccuWeather, Bastardi developed a large following on AccuWeather’s subscription-based “Pro site” featuring blog commentary and video discussions.
Barak said WeatherBell will also have a subscription-based site where Bastardi will provide forecast commentaries and video. Bastardi’s first blog posts for WeatherBell are now available. D’Aleo has also published his initial blog post on the WeatherBell website.
During his tenure at AccuWeather, Bastardi was also a frequent guest on Fox News where he discussed not only weather but his skeptical position on global warming. Barak said Bastardi as well as D’Aleo would be free to do television appearances and speak their mind but emphasized WeatherBell is “not a media company.”
Barak is well aware of Bastardi’s controversial position on global warming not to mention D’Aleo’s, who independently runs the skeptic website Icecap.us. Barak said his company does not have a position on the issue and will not interfere with either Bastardi’s or D’Aleo’s opinions.
See post.
Freedom Action
Freedom Action Supports Quick Passage
Washington, D.C., March 10, 2011 - A House subcommittee on Thursday is expected to mark up a bill, the Energy Tax Prevention Act, sponsored by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) that would block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions using the Clean Air Act. Freedom Action supports enactment of their critical legislation.
“The Energy Tax Prevention Act is one of the most important bills that Congress will vote on this year. We applaud Chairmen Upton and Whitfield for their efforts to move it quickly to the House floor. The future economic prosperity of America is at stake,” said Myron Ebell, Director of Freedom Action.
Under the Obama administration, EPA has been moving forward with new Clean Air Act regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The new regulations will do nothing to reduce global levels of the gases alleged to cause global warming, but will raise energy prices, make consumers poorer, and destroy jobs in manufacturing and other energy-intensive industries.
“The Obama Administration’s EPA is trying to implement cap-and-trade, which was defeated in Congress and overwhelmingly rejected by the American people, through the regulatory back door. And as President Obama promised during the 2008 campaign, under his plan ‘electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket,’” Ebell concluded.
“The debate on EPA’s greenhouse gas regulations boils down to a very simple issue. Who shall determine the content and direction of national policy - elected representatives accountable to the people at the ballot box, or non-elected bureaucrats, trial lawyers, and activist judges appointed for life? The Constitution permits only one answer to that question,” said Marlo Lewis, Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an affiliate organization to Freedom Action.
People in the UK will soon have an exciting new game to play at home. It’s called “Powerless” and promises to be fun for the whole family.
As Britain embraces the future of renewable energy, notably wind and solar, the boring old days of flipping a switch and being rewarded with instant, reliable energy are over. The wind doesn’t blow all the time and solar power only works in, well, sunlight. This means green energy generation is unreliable:
“...blackouts could become a feature of power systems that replace reliable coal plants with wind turbines in order to meet greenhouse gas targets.”
That’s a quote from Steve Holliday, CEO of the UK National Grid. But don’t worry, because the government has a plan:
Under the so-called “smart grid” that the UK is developing, the government-regulated utility will be able to decide when and where power should be delivered, to ensure that it meets the highest social purpose. Governments may, for example, decide that the needs of key industries take precedence over others, or that the needs of industry trump that of residential consumers. Governments would also be able to price power prohibitively if it is used for non-essential purposes.
In the near future, Brits enjoying their favorite TV show in front of the electric fire when the power goes out will be able to take solace in the knowledge that somewhere there is a higher social purpose that needs the precious power more than they do. They can make a nice cup of tea and wait, unless a kettle is needed. Oops.
Families can look forward to exciting games like ‘what’s in that sandwich Mom made in the dark?’ and ‘where’s the remote, oh wait it doesn’t matter we’ve got no bloody power again.’ British people did so well during the Blitz years of WWII that there will be no problems adjusting to the new reality of living in the occasional stone age.
The green dark age might test even the stiffest of upper lips, but there is no alternative if Gaia is to be saved. Oh wait, nuclear power you say? No emissions and clean, reliable and affordable energy for all, on demand. What a remarkable idea. Not quite as remarkable as the notion of a government determining what counts as a non-essential use of electricity, but close.
Britain’s future is green. Miserable, cold and much like the 19th century without the excuses, but green.