Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced plans today to create an office aimed at helping inform businesses and local communities about climate change.
The office, which will be part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, would consolidate climate-change data and resources. The move is a response to a rise in the number of questions the agency is receiving on the issue, NOAA, part of the Commerce Department, said in a news release.
“By providing critical planning information that our businesses and our communities need, NOAA Climate Service will help tackle head-on the challenges of mitigating and adapting to climate change,” Locke said in the statement. “In the process, we’ll discover new technologies, build new businesses and create new jobs.”
President Barack Obama, who is pushing to make a link between fighting climate change and improving the economy, is taking steps to regulate carbon-dioxide pollution that many scientists say is triggering global warming. Some Republican and Democratic lawmakers oppose such regulations, arguing it would burden companies and hurt the economy.
The Commerce Department said today that more Americans are contending with the effects of climate change, including higher sea levels, heavier rains and earlier snowmelt.
Duke Energy Corp. Chief Executive Officer James Rogers, who wants Congress to pass legislation capping greenhouse-gas emissions so businesses can have certainty about future investments, praised today’s announcement.
Flagging Concern
The new NOAA Climate Service office will help “gain the consensus” on climate change needed to move forward, Rogers said in a statement. Duke, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, owns utilities in the U.S. Southeast and Midwest.
A poll last month from Yale and George Mason universities found that U.S. concern about global warming has “dropped sharply.” Of those people questioned, 50 percent are somewhat or very worried about global warming, down from 63 percent in the fall of 2008, according to the survey.
Thomas Karl, who heads NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, will serve as transitional chief of the new office, which eventually will have six regional directors, according to the agency.
The Commerce Department today also announced a new Internet site, www.climate.gov, which it is dubbing the NOAA Climate Portal. The site will feature a new climate science magazine called ClimateWatch, data such as temperatures and carbon- dioxide levels, and scientists’ discussions of their research, NOAA said.
