The Marine Transportation System and the Federal Role Measuring Performance, Targeting Improvement -- Special Report 279 (2004) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix A Statement of William O. Gray
Appendix A Statement of William O. Gray
Pages 156-165
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From page 156... ...
I fear that to the extent this is true, readers of the report, especially policy makers, may draw mistaken conclusions both on the current state of the MTS and on what action the federal government should take in the future concerning the MTS in order to ensure "safe navigation (.
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From page 157... ...
KEY MARINE INDUSTRY EVENTS FOR AMERICANS, 19392003 The most significant events leading to growth in U.S. international marine commerce, which were nearly all led by American industry, include the following: · Between 1939 and 1945 the United States built nearly 6,000 mer chant ships that helped save Europe.
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From page 158... ...
trucker Malcolm McLean invented the con tainership, which almost completely replaced break bulk ships, reduced load and discharge time from weeks to hours, and nearly elim inated pilferage. In the 1980s APL (then an American containership company)
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From page 159... ...
when lengthy federal government delays and "red tape" threatened to slow oil imports. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE IN MTS SINCE WORLD WAR II The draft report correctly describes the widely dispersed responsibilities for marine matters in the federal government, even among the four most directly involved parties [the U.S.
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From page 160... ...
The Oil Pollution Act of 1990's (OPA 90's) nearly unlimited lia bility and criminal provisions for oil spills, together with a specific "nonpreemption" feature allowing all coastal states to have their own liability laws (mostly criminal)
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From page 161... ...
waters, but they are frequently not available. At present funding rates NOAA cannot complete accu rate surveys of critical areas for 15 to 20 years, and their real-time data system, PORTS, hardly gets funded at all (NOAA Annual National Survey Plans and FY 2004 Budget Summary)
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From page 162... ...
bureaucrats have proposed similar criminal sanctions against spil lers in the EU, but after a position paper by the Industry Roundtable (INTERTANKO, Intercargo, International Chamber of Shipping, Inter national Shipping Federations, and BIMCO) was circulated to the EC describing the negative effects of automatic criminality, the lack of due process or legitimate defenses, and the conflicts with international treaty law [the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL)
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From page 163... ...
The committee should say so, and it should recommend measures to let our citizens know how heavily our way of life is dependent on maritime commerce. Finally, there are two other points that deal with safety and environ mental protection in the MTS: · Since the 1950s most maritime nations have agreed as a matter of inter national treaty law to ensure installation of oily water shore reception facilities (SRFs)
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From page 164... ...
. This committee draft fails to tell the whole story, saying simply, "The near-miss database, however, was not established, in part because of legal and practical concerns about assuring mariner confidentiality." What I feel the report should have said is that "after about 5 years of trying, Justice Department lawyers, and even USCG's own lawyers, flatly refused to agree with any provision that might shield anyone providing information from any possibility of prosecution -- this despite the fact that the system that the industry/government team had designed closely parallels a highly successful near-miss system in the commercial aviation world that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration runs for the Federal Aviation Administration, which the big airline companies feel has saved many lives over the last 20 years." I would also add that to short-circuit a proven safety measure like this at the staff level (legal departments in USCG and the Justice Department)
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From page 165... ...
I have concluded this dissenting statement with a "gut" safety issue because as a tanker man and former sailor, I empathize with the mariners, and as an MTS committee member I regard those at sea as my main con stituency. Making the U.S.
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