Coast Guard bill adds LNG terminal security

WASHINGTON – Defying President Bush’s threatened veto, the House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a bill making the Coast Guard enforce security zones around eight liquefied natural gas terminals and any arriving tankers – all potential terrorism targets.

The White House has complained that the requirement would divert the Coast Guard from other high-priority missions and provide an “unwarranted subsidy” for LNG owners.

The bill also would set stricter crime reporting requirements for cruise ships, and it would require double hulls around fuel tanks on large cargo ships to prevent catastrophic oil spills like the one in San Francisco Bay in November.

After the vote, the White House praised the passage of a GOP-backed amendment to the bill that permits the Coast Guard to take into account agency, state and local government security resources when deciding on security plans for LNG sites.

The 395-7 vote on the $8.4 billion Coast Guard bill was well beyond the two-thirds needed to override a presidential veto. Seven Republicans voted against the measure. Reps. Michael Michaud and Tom Allen, both Maine Democrats, voted in favor of the bill.

The Senate is considering its own version of the bill.

Democrats scoffed at the White House’s objections, saying President Bush is ignoring the huge security threat posed by LNG sites on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

“I am simply appalled that this administration would refer to protecting our families as an unwarranted and unnecessary subsidy,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., who chairs the House Transportation subcommittee that oversees the Coast Guard.

Under the bill, security plans for LNG sites could not be approved unless the Coast Guard determined there were adequate agency, state and local government resources to handle security risks, Cummings said.

A dozen more LNG terminals, including projects in Maine, are being planned because of increased demand for natural gas and limited domestic supplies.

Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., said the LNG security provision could hamper the flow of much-needed natural gas as energy prices and demand rise. “We’re creating more red tape and more impediments,” Mica said.

The Government Accountability Office says a terrorism attack on an LNG tanker arriving at a terminal could ignite an explosion and fire so fierce that people a mile away would be burned. But GAO auditors also say the Coast Guard already is stretched too thin to meet its own standards for protecting arriving LNG tankers from attack.

To address complaints that crimes aboard cruise ships are underreported, the bill would make line operators report to the Homeland Security Department all security incidents, including deaths, serious bodily injuries and sexual assaults.

Cruise lines also would be required to post crime statistics on an Internet site maintained by the Coast Guard with links from the cruise line public Web sites.

“Sometimes, even cruise ships need sunshine,” said Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif.

Cruise lines last year announced a voluntary agreement with the FBI and the Coast Guard to improve and standardize crime reporting.

“The bottom line is, the crime statistics provided by the cruise industry are inaccurate and inadequate,” said Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn. “This has got to change.”

Cruise line industry officials say the reporting requirement is redundant, since they already are doing so voluntarily.

The bill also addresses a problem that has plagued the Great Lakes region: invasive species that sneak into U.S. waters aboard oceangoing cargo ships and wreak havoc. Oceangoing ships would be required to install ballast water treatment equipment to keep foreign species from U.S. waters.

Ballast tanks help stabilize ships in rough ocean waters. But ballast water is widely considered a leading source of aquatic invaders, which compete with native species for food and habitat.

At least 185 invasive species have been identified in the Great Lakes, including zebra and quagga mussels, which clog water pipes and do more than $150 million in damage a year.

“This is a great day for the Great Lakes and the coastal areas,” said Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich. “Let’s get out there and fight those nasty zebra mussels.”

The bill also would increase the Coast Guard by 1,500 members to 47,000. Another provision would tighten agency management controls over Deepwater, the $24 billion program to modernize the agency’s aging fleet. It has been plagued by cost overruns, design flaws and lax oversight.