Word: tankers
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...world's most notorious oil tanker will have a new name when she returns to service in August, and she will not be going back to Valdez, Alaska, where her grounding in March 1989 caused the biggest oil spill in U.S. history. Instead, the Exxon Mediterranean, nee Exxon Valdez, will be hauling crude oil from Turkey and Egypt to France and Italy. The tanker will have a new $30 million bottom and a new American crew...
...alternate with former skipper Joseph Hazelwood. The ship's new assignment has nothing to do with blotting out memories of the spill, explained Gus Elmer, president of Exxon Shipping Co. Production from Alaskan oil fields continues to decline, and there is no longer any need for the 987- ft. tanker on the West Coast...
Both the House and Senate passed bills last year that would create strike forces in each of the nation's ten Coast Guard districts to be poised for quick responses to oil spills. The legislation would also require tanker owners to plan for a worst possible spill. The Coast Guard would no longer simply stand by but take immediate charge of all serious tanker accidents in U.S. waters. New tankers would have to have double hulls (the Coast Guard estimates the Valdez would have lost 60% less oil if it had been constructed this way). But a conference committee working...
...procrastination apparently is due to strong resistance from the shipping and oil industries. One objection involves the timetable for putting double hulls on current tankers. The main obstacle concerns limits on the liability of tanker owners. The shippers want the U.S. to approve international standards adopted since 1984 by most European nations. These protocols would cap a company's cleanup costs at $78 million (Exxon says it has already spent $2 billion on its Valdez fiasco) and prevent nations from imposing more; yet the congressional bills would set higher liability limits in the U.S. and let the states go beyond...
While Congress endlessly ponders the industry arguments, all parties dealing with tanker accidents have an excuse for doing very little. Meanwhile, oil keeps gushing into U.S. coastal waters. Even as the Gulf fire blazed, busy New York harbor suffered its third major oil spill of the year. There have been approximately 250 lesser ones. Total spillage around New York: more than 1 million...