House T&I advances 2nd Great Lakes icebreaker

House T&I advances 2nd Great Lakes icebreaker

Oberstar

   The U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Thursday approved legislation that would authorize $153 million to design and build a second new Coast Guard icebreaker for the Great Lakes.
   Rep. James Oberstar, chairman of the committee, proposed the Great Lakes Icebreaker Replacement Act (H.R. 1747). 'The Great Lakes needs sufficient icebreaking capabilities to keep the lakes operational and shipping lanes open during the winter months,' he said.
   'In the spring of 2008, the Coast Guard was unable to keep the shipping channels open, and U.S.-flag ships on the Great Lakes sustained $1.3 million in damage to their hulls as a result,' said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., chairman of the House T&I's Coast Guard and maritime transportation subcommittee, in support of the legislation.
   If built, the vessel would be the sister to the Coast Guard's newest Great Lakes icebreaker-buoy tender Mackinaw.
   'Five of the Coast Guard's icebreakers (built in the late 1970s) on the Great Lakes are nearing the end of their useful lives, and two of the buoy tenders that the Coast Guard uses to break ice cannot handle heavy ice conditions,' Cummings said.
   The Great Lakes Maritime Task Force has lobbied to replace the Coast Guard's aging icebreaker fleet on the Lakes.
   'The U.S. Coast Guard does the best it can,' said Donald Cree, the task force's president, during the group's annual briefing in Washington Thursday morning. 'A twin to the icebreaker Mackinaw will keep commerce moving in the harshest of winters. We will be contacting the Great Lakes delegation and asking they support the bill.'

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   Shipping on the Great Lakes during the ice season (Dec. 16 to April 15) is crucial to meeting the nation's demand for raw materials, the task force said. During the winter of 2006-2007, shipments of iron ore, coal, stone, cement, salt and liquid-bulk products totaled nearly 22 million tons, or 16 percent of those commodities' annual total.
   'The ice that forms on the lakes is formidable,' said Patrick O'Hern, third vice president of the Great Lakes Maritime Task Force, and vice president and general manager of Bay Shipbuilding Co., in a statement. 'Great Lakes shipping cannot meet the needs of the industrial heartland unless the Coast Guard's icebreaking assets are modernized.' ' Chris Gillis