A Deal Has Been Struck; Obey Saves Great Lakes Ships From Compliance with Pollution Regs

After weeks of wrangling between Great Lakes lawmakers and the EPA, late Monday night House Appropriations Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wisc.) won a hard fought deal that will provide an exemption from air pollution standards for 13 ancient Great Lakes ships.

When Great Lakes Shippers realized that the $32 billion natural resources bill that is the source of the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget included regulations that would force them to stop using dirty fuel within the next few years they went to their congressmen. Behind closed doors, Obey, James Oberstar (D-Minn.) and other Great Lakes lawmakers met with the EPA to hammer out an exception for the oldest ships working the Great Lakes. Shippers argued the regulations would force them out of business and that the public health concern wasn’t great enough to trump economics. Gee, we haven’t heard that before!

These Great Lakes lawmakers who have been known for supporting environmental restoration efforts concerning the lakes were so tight lipped about this process that even POLITICO was not able to acquire the details of the deal. But it is clear that 13 of the Great Lakes Ships are eligible for waivers from the EPA if they can show that they will be driven out of business and the other 13 – well, Congress will be in charge and not the EPA.

Here is the extra sneaky part, by attaching this exemption for the shippers onto a must-pass bill it is a shoe in to go through – most likely by the end of this week. In other words, there is no way to stop this from happening at this point. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has indicated that she will accept the scheme because her ports and her public in California will not be negatively impacted as those ships will have to comply with the EPA’s air standards.

“It’s not something I necessarily desire,” said Sen. Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, told E&E news. Feinstein also told the news service that Michigan Democratic Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin asked her to support the rider. At least the bill that contains the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative money is out of conference and on its way to the floor, ironic that it was held up by Great Lakes Shippers looking for a loophole to pollute.

• Posted by Tiffany Danitz Pache on October 28th, 2009
• Tags: Air Pollution, Carl-Levin, David-Obey, Debbie-Stabenow, Energy and Water Bill, EPA, Great Lakes Shippers, James-Oberstar, public-health
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2 Responses to “A Deal Has Been Struck; Obey Saves Great Lakes Ships From Compliance with Pollution Regs”

1. Don mitchel Says:
   October 28th, 2009 at 8:00 am

   Dear Sirs, Although all things being done to try and clean up our environment are for the common good of mankind, I find it hard to believe, after Congress’s and Rep Oberstars failure to again address the national security issue of ballast water, that the sudden renewed interest, to now address the important issues of air pollution by shipping is little more than a smoke screen to distract attention from Ballast Water. It might also be noted that Senator Boxer also had a renewed interest in shipping air quality after the demise, she created for ballast water legislation on the 110 congress.
   Sincerely Don Mitchel

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2. Tiffany Danitz Pache Says:
   November 4th, 2009 at 2:34 pm

   Don is right! We need to keep focused on ballast even as we move on GLRI and other fronts. If ships aren’t willing to comply with the air standards they are sure to complain when new ballast technology is introduced.

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