New Great Lakes icebreaker is required to be at the least as succesful as USCGS Mackinaw. [USCG photograph]
Among the numerous items of laws tacked onto the large just-passed National Defense Authorization Act was the Great Lakes Winter Commerce Act.
It is aimed toward updating the Coast Guard’s Great Lakes icebreaking mission and rising its icebreaking capability on the Great Lakes. It consists of $350 million for the acquisition of a Great Lakes icebreaker and $20 million for the design and choice of icebreaking cutters for operation within the Great Lakes, Northeastern U.S,, and the Arctic.
The Great Lakes ice breaker is required to be at the least as succesful because the USCGC Mackinaw (WLBB-30), launched by Marinette Marine in 2005 and supply on an accelerated schedule is named for.
All of this seems to be in line with proposals submitted by former USCG commandant Karl Schultz in 2020 in response to a Senate request.
The new laws addresses a state of affairs below which no statute has required the USCG to interrupt ice within the Great Lakes. Instead, the USCG has adopted a 1936 Executive Order requiring icebreaking “in accordance with the reasonable demands of commerce” with out a lot definition of when, the place, and what that’s.
The act provides a brand new part to title 14 USC that:
- Codifies into regulation the USCG’s icebreaking mission within the Great Lakes. Requires the USCG to interrupt ice within the Great Lakes in accordance with the affordable calls for of commerce and requirements set forth within the invoice. Updating the requirements will enhance how the USCG measures profitable icebreaking, permitting USCG to measurement its icebreaker fleet to deal with the overwhelming majority of ice seasons whereas limiting extra capability. The invoice features a one-time report on the working prices related to this new efficiency customary.
- Requires USCG to report back to Congress on the icebreaking season. Requires an annual report of USCG actions in the course of the earlier winter’s icebreaking actions, together with the numbers of icebreaking operations carried out by every nation in three classes of Great Lakes water.
- Requires USCG to coordinate with business for icebreaking operations.
- Defines “reasonable demands of commerce.” “The secure motion of economic vessels transiting ice-covered waterways within the Great Lakes, no matter kind of cargo, at a pace according to the design functionality of Coast Guard icebreakers working within the Great Lakes
