New legislation introduced in the wake of the fatal Seacor Power tragedy would require commercial vessel owners to provide timely notifications to crew members’ families throughout search and rescue operations.The Vessel Response Plan Improvement Act was introduced by Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) after the 234-foot lift boat capsized in the Gulf of Mexico with 19 crewmembers on board last month.
Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) said one of its containerships has had to pause its China-U.S. voyage after a fuel problem gave rise to engine problems on board the 366-meter vessel.The Panamanian-flagged containership MSC Ariane had to stop at sea on April 2 due to an engine issue caused by "bad quality of fuel", MSC said.
China passed a law on Friday that for the first time explicitly allows its coast guard to fire on foreign vessels, a move that could make the contested waters around China more choppy.China has maritime sovereignty disputes with Japan in the East China Sea and with several Southeast Asian countries in the South China Sea.
The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on a ship involved in building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to take Russian natural gas to Europe, as the Trump administration sought to raise pressure on the project on its last full day in office.The U.S. Treasury Department said it imposed the sanctions on the Russian pipe-laying ship "Fortuna" and its owner, KVT-RUS
In early October, Waterways Council, Inc. (WCI) reported in its newsletter Capitol Currents that the future of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2020 hung in the balance, with many unknowns for its chances of being signed into law during the Lame Duck session of Congress that just concluded in late December.
The United States is urging European allies and private companies to halt work that could help build the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline and is preparing wider sanctions on the Russian project in coming weeks, senior Trump administration officials said on Wednesday.The outgoing Trump administration is readying a fresh round of congressionally mandated sanctions “in the very near future” that
The U.S. Senate on Friday passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2021, a massive $741 billion defense bill setting policy for the Pentagon. Importantly for the U.S. offshore and maritime industries, the bill includes an amendment ensuring full enforcement of the Jones Act and other federal laws in offshore wind development.
Estonia, Sweden and Finland will look into fresh evidence on the sinking of the ferry Estonia, which went down 26 years ago on Monday with the loss of 852 lives in Europe’s worst peacetime maritime disaster since World War Two.The roll-on roll-off ferry, carrying 803 passengers and 186 crew, sank on a stormy Baltic Sea shortly after midnight on Sept. 28, 1994.
The Sri Lankan navy said on Tuesday an oil slick had been spotted a kilometer from a loaded supertanker carrying roughly 2 million barrels of oil that has been engulfed in intermittent fires since an explosion on September 3.Oil from the engine room of the 20-year old New Diamond tanker “appears to have leaked out to the sea” following regular bouts of water-dousing by fire-fighting vessels
A Japanese ship that ran aground on a reef off Mauritius two weeks ago has now stopped leaking oil into the Indian Ocean but the island nation must still prepare for "a worst case scenario", Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth said late on Monday.Conservationists said they were starting to find dead fish as well as seabirds covered in oil
In response to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the Congressional Research Service released a report that stated global economic growth has declined by 3% to 6% in 2020 with a partial recovery predicted for 2021. Also, the GDP of the U.S. has fallen by 5% in the first quarter 2020.
Waterways Council, Inc. (WCI) is the national public policy organization that advocates for a modern, efficient inland waterways system. Abiding by our mission has meant success over our 17-year history. In 2020, WCI’s top priority is to conform the cost-share for Inland Waterways Trust Fund (IWTF)-financed construction projects to require 25% of the project cost be derived from the IWTF and the