[Grovenet] Coast Guard "capabilities"

[Linda Martin]

Attached are excerpts of reports and links to those reports. They include GAO reports and comments by the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation. I believe that the Coast Guard has contradicted its own reports regarding the Columbia River, and while the Coast Guard may claim that there is no problem escorting tankers in the Columbia, the GAO and Chairman Cummings disagree:

January 8, 2008 Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Coast Guard lacks the resources to adequately protect tankers carrying liquefied petroleum or crude oil from a possible terrorist attack, congressional auditors reported Wednesday.
The report by the Government Accountability Office said the Coast Guard is stretched too thin in some cases "to meet its own self-imposed security standards such as escorting ships carrying liquefied natural gas."
Also, said the report, some ports visited by the government auditors did not have the resources needed to promptly respond to a terrorist attack on a crude oil or LNG tanker, including a shortage of fire boats and inadequately trained people.
The GAO report said past incidents overseas have shown that fuel-carrying tankers are significant terrorist targets, with the biggest concern being a suicide attack. The report noted the 2002 suicide boat attack on a tanker off the coast or Yemen, for example.
continued at 
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h3m2LlzzbuUMfPtVAohaWqORKSXwD8U2M9BG3

.           Plans for Long Island LNG plant move ahead (Coast Guard Contradicts Itself  and report on LNG in Columbia River shipping)
The FERC report notes that energy needs in the region are rising while existing supplies of natural gas are expected to dry up. “The use of natural gas for electrical generation, rather than coal or oil, is directed toward meeting regional air quality objectives,” it says. “The proposed project would reduce the area’s future need for new or expanded interstate natural gas pipelines by providing a local supply of natural gas that uses existing distribution facilities.”

At the same time, says the report, “construction and operation of the project
 would result in limited adverse environmental impacts.”

The Coast Guard has recommended a safety zone surrounding each tanker in transit that would be about a mile wide and three miles long. The FERC report says the safety measure would still allow room for recreational and fishing vessels to traverse The Race, the channel through Long Island Sound, but some boating and fishing groups oppose the plan because of fears that the plant would constrict marine traffic.
full report: http://www.blockislandtimes.com/articles/2008/01/29/news/news2.txt

January 29, 2008

Cummings calls for new LNG terminal security measures    Congressman Elijah E. Cummings, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, yesterday called for new action to enhance the security of LNG imports...

 "In some instances, the Coast Guard has required LNG terminals to hire local law enforcement to provide some of the security around LNG tankers while they are unloading. 
   "While I have the highest respect for our police and other first responders, frankly, they have been the first to admit in testimony to our Subcommittee at the two hearings we convened on LNG security that they do not have the resources and training to take on this type of responsibility. 
  "These types of arrangements --which in my opinion simply are not optimal-- are being made because the Coast Guard does not have the resources it needs to provide these security services while continuing all of its other vital missions. 
  "This is most clearly confirmed in the waterway suitability assessment for the proposed Broadwater terminal in New York, in which the Coast Guard reported it would need 11 new boats to provide adequate security. 
   "Despite the obvious red flags that this situation should raise, FERC was unable to explain what impact the lack of Coast Guard resources would have on a pending terminal application." 
  full story...
http://www.marinelog.com/DOCS/NEWSMMVII/2008jan00291.html

more stories:
http://malibusurfsidenews.com/stories/200801/20080117003.html