Maine Coast History 1999: Maine BEP holds hearing on State vs Federal role in oil tanker oversight in state waters.

In  the late 1990s,  Maine BEP and DEP duked it out with the US Coast Guard and  Intertanko the oil tanker lobby group, over the extent of state power to regulate interstate tanker shipping in state waters. (And lost. )

Have a listen to a 29 minute recording from a historic BEP Hearing of this struggle. Broken into 4 sections for ease of listening (Summaries of each Part provided  below)

Part 1 USCG Presentation_8min35sec  (partial)

Part 2 BEP / USCG  Q&A 1. 6min    Part 3 BEP / USCG_Q&A2_3min38sec

Part 4 BEP / USCG Q&A 3  to end  8min 7sec

Questions raised and answered in Q&A 1 

Q1.  What ships can Coast Guard Not board?

Answer : can board all vessels in US waters

Q2 What do we have for State jurisdiction? State has a desire to be at the decisionmaking table

A .There ARE areas where the state has a seat at the table . He explains how .

Q3 If the state can do things that don't actually encroach on Coastie jurisdiction?

A State regulates ship pilots for one thing. so clearly yes.

Q4 There's federal standards. Does Maine have ANY authority state waters

A USCG: Maine has regulations on whether a vessel is "seaworthy" Does the state standard rule? Maybe. Only if the federal govt doesn't have that defined. There has to be only one decision on whether a vessel is seaworthy. Does the state have that power? If not taken by the feds

Questions raised and answered in Q&A 2 

 Q What does the federal govt control superceding state authority?

A Design, construction, equipment , manning and operations of tankers

Q As far as pilots and ships within harbors -any state control there?

A. There are two types of pilots the feds regulate certain pilots for certain types of trade,. But the state controls most. If Maine decided pilots weren't meeting standards they could require more training.

Plus - Where the federal govt DOESNT have a shipping standard, THE STATE IS FREE TO REGULATE that particular activity.

Q Can the state be stricter than the federal government?

A Difficult question. Generally no.

Part 3 presentation  & Q&A by DEP's David Look,  chair of the oil spill advisory committee

Look was appointed in 1990 the Commission to Study Maine Oil Spill Preparedness  At the  April 28 meeting of the BEP  the Commission gave unanimous    recommendation  that the vessel operations portions  of Chapter 600 be sernt back and reviewed  by his committee Look said they been  at this for 6 years 

Q: Why do you need  look need more time? 

A: Not enough input from those involved.  

(Look notes that he is a spill professional not a vessel operations expert)

 Q. If Coast Guard  has supremacy over vessel operations what good does the state effort do?

A:  We learned the more agreement ahead of time between regulators and others the better off you are

Q  This has been under study 5 years. What new info haven't they had opportunity to consider?

A  Right about the time,  but the comments we got those arts of industry involved in vessel operationss don't feel they had opportunity for input. 

Q  Given your expertise in oil spills what could ahve prevented Julie N       

A Don't know; not his expertrise 

Q CG said state equal partner in  spill incident command

A True and we work closely with the Capain of the Port...

End of recording