Word: tankers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...apparently just plain bad luck that as the tanker American Trader was unloading off Southern California's Huntington Beach last week, a sudden swell caused an anchor to tear a 3-ft. gash in the ship's forward compartment. Working by night, the crew plugged the hole within four hours, but an estimated 300,000 gal. of crude poured into the Pacific. At week's end the oil slick covered a 30-sq.-mi. area and was starting to foul beaches and wildlife refuges...
...accident gave new impetus to local efforts to require double hulls on all new tankers. But unlike Exxon, whose response to last year's catastrophic oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound was too little and too late, British Petroleum, the company leasing the tanker, lost no time in launching a cleanup. "Their response has been without equal," said a Coast Guard spokesman. "The people and the equipment were ready...
What happened next is disputed. According to French Environment Minister Brice Lalonde, who flew to Morocco to consult with authorities in the former French protectorate, the response lagged while the ship's owner, the National Iranian Tanker Co., bargained over the price of salvage with the Rotterdam- based firm Smit Tak. "Thirteen days were lost while they haggled like rug merchants," lamented Lalonde. Smit Tak explained that it was hamstrung by Spain and Morocco, which refused to allow the Khark 5 to be towed closer to their shores, where the company thought it could seal the leaks...
East Europeans grapple with the sobering task of political, economic and moral reconstruction. -- Violence in the south and separatism in the north make nationalism one of Moscow's most pressing problems. -- An Iranian tanker spills nearly twice as much oil as the Exxon Valdez, but the immediate impact on the environment is less dire than that of the Alaska mishap...
...either by increased government regulation or public pressure. In September an alliance of environmental groups, bankers and investment-fund managers, known as the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies, unveiled a set of guidelines for corporate conduct called the Valdez Principles (a name taken from the Exxon Valdez, the tanker responsible for the Alaskan oil spill). Firms that agree to the guidelines must pledge, among other things, to conserve energy, reduce waste and market environmentally safe products...