Coast Guard bill includes anti-pirate liability protection

Coast Guard bill includes anti-pirate liability protection    The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Thursday voted out a Coast Guard reauthorization bill that sets the table for $10 billion in funding during fiscal year 2010.
   It also strengthens protections for U.S. mariners who defend their vessels against acts of piracy.
   More than a tenth of the funding blueprint is devoted to the acquisition of new vessels, aircraft and support systems as part of the Deepwater acquisition program.
   The funding level is $200 million more than requested by the Obama administration.
   A major focus of the bill is reforming the sea service's sub par acquisition process that has led to cost overruns and construction delays for much-needed replacement vessels. The committee also seeks to restructure the leadership and administration of the Marine Safety program to improve coordination of resources.
   Under a provision of the bill sponsored by Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J., merchant seamen who use force and individuals who authorize the use of force to defend a vessel against a pirate attack would be shielded from liability for damages or injuries that result from their defensive actions.
   The bill also includes $153 million for the design and construction of a new icebreaker for the Great Lakes to keep commercial shipping lanes open longer each season.
   The Coast Guard has eight vessels with icebreaking responsibilities stationed on the Great Lakes. The newest, Mackinaw, was launched in 2006. Two other vessels were built earlier this decade and five others date from the 1970s.
   The U.S.-flag Great Lake carrier industry, represented largely by the Lake Carriers’ Association, praised the House committee’s actions to include funding for a new heavy-duty icebreaker, like the Mackinaw, for the lakes.
   “When the economy is hitting on all cylinders, our members can move 20 million tons of cargo during periods of ice cover,” said James H.I. Weakley, president of the Lake Carriers’ Association, in a statement. “Those cargoes of iron ore, coal and other commodities are key to keeping the economy strong.”
   The association said the Coast Guard cannot operate efficiently during the Great Lakes ice season with the older, less effective breakers. “In March and April of 2008, our members suffered more than $1.3 million in ice-related damages to their vessels because the Coast Guard could not adequately maintain the shipping lanes,” Weakley said.
   The association said a second new icebreaker is also needed to help offset the lack of Canadian icebreakers on the Great Lakes. Canada is now down to two icebreakers, from a high of seven, on the lakes.
   Shipments of dry-bulk cargoes on the Great Lakes generally begin in early March and extend through the end of January. The ice that forms can be three-to-four feet thick, with ice piles reaching 12-to-15 feet high.
   The Coast Guard legislation also included tougher requirements on the type of anti-fouling paint allowed on commercial ship hulls. It gives the Environmental Protection Agency and the Coast Guard the authority to ban foreign-flag ships from entering U.S. waters if their hulls are coated with paints containing Tributyltin. The EPA banned the sale and manufacture of the toxic substance in 2000. The measure would bring the United States into compliance with an international environmental treaty. The bill also establishes criminal and civil penalties for non-compliance with the ban.
   Committee Chairman James Oberstar has also promised to propose an amendment before the bill is considered by the entire House to address ballast water discharge, according to a statement from the Republican side.
   LoBiondo and Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., want to adopt comprehensive national vessel discharge standards to replace an assortment of state regulations that are less effective in stopping the introduction of invasive species in U.S. waters. The standards would require treatment of ballast water prior to discharge.