Mayor Richard Bowe of Bryam Township, NJ, has a complaint with an analog in the politics of global warming.
Responding to ominous warnings of blizzard during the week of March 5, Bowe closed whatever in his town that he could and spent much public money on preparations. He acted no differently than did responsible public officials all along the central and northern US East Coast.
Weather forecasters were indeed persuasive.
Maps on television made their fears graphic: one air mass loaded with moisture being pushed inland from the Atlantic, a low-pressure system rolling eastward. A collision seemed inevitable. There would be thunderstorms. There would be snow, lots of snow, all over the US East.
But the weather had other ideas.
Sure, there was heavy snowfall. But it was confined to New England and points north, where people are always prepared for such weather this time of year.
The heavily populated areas around Washington, DC, and New York City were spared. So was Bryam Township.
The fortifications of Bowe and many other municipal and state leaders went for naught.
Bowe, for one, didn't appreciate the scare.
He called for an investigation of the US Weather Service.
In a television interview he said it didn't bother him that forecasters had been so wrong. Everybody makes mistakes. Weather's full of surprises.
What bothered Bowe was the certainty with which forecasters assured him and his townsfolk that they'd be clobbered.
If they can't be certain, he said, they shouldn't act certain. And they shouldn't stir up fear unless they're certain about the reason to be frightened.
To anyone keeping up with the global warming controversy, this has a familiar ring.
Environmentalists and their friends in government who want to tax fossil energy into disuse are certain that a build-up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is trapping heat and warming the planet.
They are certain that no natural phenomena can account for observed temperature changes.
They are certain that whatever influence human activity exerts isn't offset by little-understood climate mechanics.
They are certain that their computer models are sophisticated enough now to warrant fears of the absolute worst.
They are certain that governments need to take billions of dollars from individuals to coerce them into using expensive forms of energy and into leading generally less-active, less-productive lives.
But, of course, the climate, like the weather, might have other ideas.
And all the costly precautions will have been for naught.