1.This Act may be cited as the
Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment
Implementation Act of 2009
.
2.
(a)The Congress finds and declares the
following:
(1)The Arctic Ocean
and adjacent seas are becoming increasingly accessible to shipping, due to
thinning ice cover, technological improvements allowing greater efficiencies in
the operation of ice-breakers and ice-strengthened cargo and passenger vessels,
satellite support for navigation and real-time ice-charting, and growing demand
for Arctic tourism and natural resources.
(2)It is in the interests of the United States
to work with the State of Alaska and our neighbors in the Arctic Region to
ensure that shipping in the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas is safe for
mariners, protective of the natural environment, including the air, land,
water, and wildlife of the Arctic, and mindful of the needs of longstanding
subsistence users of Arctic resources.
(3)It is further in the interests of the
United States to ensure that shipping in the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas is
secure, and that United States sovereign and security interests, including the
rights of United States vessels to innocent passage through international
straits, are respected and protected, that access is provided throughout the
Arctic Ocean for legitimate research vessels of all nations, and that peaceful
relations are maintained in the Arctic region.
(4)It is further in
the interests of the United States to see that a system of international
cooperation is established to support reliable shipping, with methods for joint
investment in providing mariners aids to navigation, ports of refuge,
vessel-to-shore communication, hydrographic mapping, and search and rescue
capability.
(5)For nearly 500
years, mariners and sea-faring nations have sought national and global benefits
from sea routes in the Arctic similar to those provided now by the Panama and
Suez canals, but as those benefits may finally be realized, expanded shipping
will present risks to residents of the Arctic, and coordinated shipping
regulations are needed to protect United States interests even from shipping
that may occur in the Arctic region outside United States territorial
waters.
(6)Proven models for
international cooperation in management of regional waterways exist, including
United States joint administration of the St. Lawrence Seaway with Canada, and
existing cooperation between the Coast Guard and its Russian Federation
counterpart for fisheries enforcement in the Bering Sea and North Pacific
regions.
(7)The United States
has continuing research, security, environmental, and commercial interests in
the Arctic region that rely on the availability of icebreaker platforms of the
Coast Guard. The Polar Class icebreakers commissioned in the 1970s are in need
of replacement.
(8)Sovereign interests of the United States in the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea
regions may grow with submission of a United States claim for an extended
continental shelf.
(9)Building new
icebreakers, mustering international plans for aids to navigation and other
facilities, and establishing coordinated shipping regulations and oil spill
prevention and response capability through international cooperation, including
the approval of the International Maritime Organization, requires long lead
times. Beginning those efforts now, with the completion of an Arctic Marine
Shipping Assessment by the eight-nation Arctic Council, is essential to protect
United States interests given the extensive current use of the Arctic Ocean and
adjacent seas by vessels of many nations.
(b)The
purpose of this Act is to ensure safe, secure, and reliable maritime shipping
in the Arctic including the availability of aids to navigation, vessel escorts,
spill response capability, and maritime search and rescue in the Arctic.
3.International
maritime organization agreementsTo carry out the purpose of this Act, the
Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating shall work
through the International Maritime Organization to establish agreements to
promote coordinated action among the United States, Russia, Canada, Iceland,
Norway, and Denmark and other seafaring and Arctic nations to ensure, in the
Arctic—
(1)placement and
maintenance of aids to navigation;
(2)appropriate
icebreaking escort, tug, and salvage capabilities;
(3)oil spill
prevention and response capability;
(4)maritime domain
awareness, including long-range vessel tracking; and
(5)search and
rescue.
4.Coordination by
Committee on the Maritime Transportation SystemThe Committee on the Maritime Transportation
System established under a directive of the President in the Ocean Action Plan,
issued December 17, 2004, shall coordinate the establishment of domestic
transportation policies in the Arctic necessary to carry out the purpose of the
Act.
5.The Secretary of the
department in which the Coast Guard is operating may, subject to the
availability of appropriations, enter into cooperative agreements, contracts,
or other agreements with, or make grants to individuals and governments to
carry out the purpose of this Act or any agreements established under section
3.
6.The Secretary of the department in which the
Coast Guard is operating shall promote safe maritime navigation by means of
icebreaking where needed to assure the reasonable demands of commerce.
7.The Secretary of
Transportation may enter into cooperative agreements, contracts, or other
agreements with, or make grants to, individuals to conduct demonstration
projects to reduce emissions or discharges from vessels operating in the
Arctic.
8.Authorization of
appropriationsThere are
authorized to be appropriated—
(1)to the Secretary
of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating—
(A)$750,000,000 for
each of fiscal years 2011 and 2012 for the construction of two polar capable
icebreakers;
(B)$5,000,000 for
each of fiscal years 2011 through 2015 for seasonal operations in the Arctic;
and
(C)$10,000,000 for
each of fiscal years 2012 through 2015 to carry out agreements established
under section 5; and
(2)to the Secretary
of Transportation $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2011 through 2015 to
conduct demonstration projects under section 7.
9.In this Act the
term Arctic has the same meaning as in section 112 of the Arctic
Research and Policy Act of 1984 (15 U.S.C. 4111).