1.This Act may be cited as the
Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment
Implementation Act of 2010
.
2.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 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.
(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 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 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.
3.Arctic marine shipping
assessment implementation
(a)The
purpose of this section is to ensure safe and secure 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.
(b)International
maritime organization agreementsTo carry out the purpose of this section,
the Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating is
encouraged to enter into negotiations through the International Maritime
Organization to conclude and execute 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 marine safety, 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.
(c)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 this section.
(d)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 section
or any agreements established under subsection (b).
(e)The Secretary of the department in which
the Coast Guard is operating shall promote safe maritime navigation by means of
icebreaking where needed to carry out the purposes of this section.
(f)The Secretary of
Transportation may enter into cooperative agreements, contracts, or other
agreements with, or make grants to—
(1)individuals to
conduct demonstration projects to reduce emissions (including black carbon and
other emissions that could contribute to climate change) or discharges from
vessels operating in the Arctic; and
(2)maritime training institutions to train
mariners for ice navigation (including navigation in broken ice conditions) and
Arctic operations, including the prevention of discharges.
(g)Authorization of
appropriationsThere are authorized to be appropriated—
(1)to the Secretary
of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating—
(A)$5,000,000 for
each of fiscal years 2011 through 2015 for seasonal operations in the Arctic;
and
(B)$10,000,000 for
each of fiscal years 2012 through 2015 to carry out agreements established
under subsection (d); and
(2)to the Secretary
of Transportation $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2011 through 2015 to
conduct demonstration projects under subsection (f).
(h)
(1)Not
later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act or the date of
completion of the ongoing High Latitude Study to assess Arctic polar
ice-breaking mission requirements, whichever occurs later, the Commandant of
the Coast Guard shall—
(A)conduct a
comparative cost-benefit analysis of—
(i)extending the service life of the existing
fleet of icebreakers for operation by the Coast Guard,
(ii)constructing new
icebreakers for operation by the Coast Guard, and
(iii)any combination of the activities described
in clauses (i) and (ii) that is necessary for the Coast Guard to carry out the
Federal icebreaking missions of the United States; and
(B)conduct an analysis of the impact on
mission capacity and the ability of the United States to maintain a presence in
the Arctic regions through the year 2020 if recapitalization of the icebreaker
fleet, either by constructing new icebreakers or extending the service life of
the existing fleet of icebreakers, is not fully funded.
(2)
(A)Not later than 90
days after the date of enactment of this Act or the date of completion of the
ongoing High Latitude Study to assess Arctic ice-breaking mission requirements,
whichever occurs later, the Commandant of the Coast Guard shall submit a report
containing the results of the study, together with recommendations the
Commandant deems appropriate under section 93(a)(24) of title 14, United States
Code, to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the
House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
(B)Not later than 1
year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Commandant shall submit
reports containing the results of the analyses required under subparagraphs (A)
and (B) of paragraph (1), together with recommendations the Commandant deems
appropriate under section 93(a)(24) of title 14, United States Code, to the
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the House of
Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
4.Assessment of needs
for additional Coast Guard presence in high latitude regionsWithin 270 days after the date of enactment
of this Act, the Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is
operating shall submit a report to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure of the House of Representatives assessing the need for
additional Coast Guard prevention and response capability in the high latitude
regions. The assessment shall address needs for all Coast Guard mission areas,
including search and rescue, marine pollution response and prevention,
fisheries enforcement, and maritime commerce. The Secretary shall include in
the report—
(1)an assessment of
the high latitude operating capabilities of all current Coast Guard assets,
including assets acquired under the Deepwater program;
(2)an assessment of
projected needs for Coast Guard forward operating bases in the high latitude
regions;
(3)an assessment of
shore infrastructure, personnel, logistics, communications, and resources
requirements to support Coast Guard forward operating bases in the high
latitude regions;
(4)an assessment of the need for high latitude
icebreaking capability and the capability of the current high latitude
icebreaking assets of the Coast Guard, including—
(A)whether the Coast
Guard’s high latitude icebreaking fleet is meeting current mission performance
goals;
(B)whether the fleet
is capable of meeting projected mission performance goals; and
(C)an assessment of
the material condition, safety, and working conditions aboard high latitude
icebreaking assets, including the effect of those conditions on mission
performance;
(5)a
detailed estimate of acquisition costs for each of the assets (including shore
infrastructure) necessary for additional prevention and response capability in
high latitude regions for all Coast Guard mission areas, and an estimate of
operations and maintenance costs for such assets for the initial 10-year period
of operations; and
(6)detailed cost estimates (including
operating and maintenance for a period of 10 years) for high latitude
icebreaking capability to ensure current and projected future mission
performance goals are met, including estimates of the costs to—
(A)renovate and
modernize the Coast Guard’s existing high latitude icebreaking fleet;
and
(B)replace the Coast
Guard’s existing high latitude icebreaking fleet.
5.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).