If you can believe it, NOAA is in the Commerce Department. NOAA is an environmental agency, Commerce is a trade and economic agency: like oil and water, the two will never mix. But, they were wed in an arranged marriage by Richard Nixon in 1970. Nixon arranged for NOAA to be under Commerce because he was butt hurt by a politician who’s son was against the Vietnam War. What a drama queen! NOAA should have been in the DOI from the beginning. Obama is trying to correct that misstep. Fingers crossed!

“President Obama said Friday that his plan to move the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration into the Interior Department would correct a mistake that dates back four decades.

Obama announced the plan to take NOAA away from the Commerce Department as part of a broader proposal to merge various trade and commerce agencies. Here’s Obama on Friday on why NOAA is housed at Commerce to begin with:

If you’re wondering what the genesis of this was, apparently, it had something to do with President Nixon being unhappy with his Interior Secretary for criticizing him about the Vietnam War. And so he decided not to put NOAA in what would have been a more sensible place.

But some environmentalists are dismayed by the proposed move to Interior, which handles offshore oil-and-gas leasing and regulation.”

Read the rest at The Hill