Fyi who has how many icebreakers
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- Safety should always come first in transportation policy – role-playing requires that you prioritize this impact
- AT – Melting Ice Solves
- Melting ice means more icebreakers needed
Add-On – SafetyIce-breakers key to Arctic safetyCRS 2008 “Report to Congress: U.S. Coast Guard Polar Operations,” www.uscg.mil/history/docs/2008CRSUSCGPolarOps.pdf If more vessels operate in the nascent “open water” of the Arctic Ocean, the risk of a vessel becoming beset by an ice ridge or unexpectedly impacting thicker multi-year ice increases. This brings a corresponding increase in risk to their crews and the environment as well. Even icebreakers and ice-strengthened vessels may encounter unexpected conditions that could cause vessel damage or loss. If changes in summer Arctic conditions continue the trend observed in the past six years, we may expect incidents and casualties to occur with greater frequency and/or farther from U.S. shores. The USCG’s ability to respond to these incidents, provide access to support other agencies and governments, and enforce laws and treaties in the region will be driven by the availability of icebreakers, ice-strengthened vessels and cold-weather air support. The logistics and basing infrastructure in the region must be enhanced to provide extended operational presence. Safety should always come first in transportation policy – role-playing requires that you prioritize this impactAdvocates for Highway and Auto Safety 4 July 16, “Victory For Truck Safety,” http://www.saferoads.org/victory-truck-safety July 16, 2004. In a unanimous decision, a 3-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., today struck down the government hours of service (HOS) rule for truck drivers. Today's ruling is an important victory for highway safety and the public because the HOS rule - which limits the maximum hours of driving to ensure safety - allowed truck drivers to spend many more hours behind the wheel than under the previous rule, allowing drivers to become even more fatigued, and posing a safety danger to other motorists. The decision came in a lawsuit brought by Public Citizen and a number of safety organizations, in which Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety (Advocates) and the Insurance Institute for Highway safety filed amicus (friend of the court) briefs. The Court ruled for the plaintiffs on all counts, vacating the entire rule that was issued in April, 2003, and went into effect earlier this year. In its opinion, the Court first ruled that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) failed to consider the effect that longer working and driving hours permitted by the rule would have on the health and physical condition of truck drivers. The linchpin of Advocates' brief was that the agency ignored its legal duty to consider the impact of the HOS rule on the health and physical condition of truck drivers. Advocates argued that Congress specifically made the health of truck drivers a mandatory factor that had to be taken into account. The court agreed with Advocates that the agency's rule was arbitrary and capricious since it failed to consider this fundamental statutory factor. Judith L. Stone, President of Advocates, stated that "The court's action is a victory for protecting truck drivers from being forced to operate very long hours without adequate sleep and rest. The rule would undermine the health of truck drivers and degrade safety on our nation's highways." The Court went on to criticize the FMCSA for its flawed rulemaking on all the issues raised by the plaintiffs. It explicitly rejected the agency's attempt to justify longer driving shifts and many more cumulative hours of driving over a 7- or 8-day tour of duty. It found the FMCSA's benefit-cost analysis to be dubious because it attempted to "explain away" the fundamental issue of how increased time spent working and driving under the rule could be just as safe as fewer hours of work. The court also rejected the agency's resurrection of split sleeping time for drivers who try to sleep in their trucks as unsupported and irrational, especially in light of the agency's previous proposed rule in 2000 arguing that solo drivers needed a single, uninterrupted off-duty period each day to get sufficient opportunities for adequate sleep and rest. Finally, the court roundly criticized the FMCSA for having no good reason for backing away from its previous proposal to require electronic on-board recorders (EOBRs), and from evading its statutory duty to evaluate seriously whether EOBRs should be required. Stone added, "This ruling reassures us that public health and safety should always come first and must be the highest priority of government transportation officials." AT – Melting Ice SolvesAT – melting ice means we don’t need icebreakersO’Rourke 6/14 Specialist in Naval Affairs, Congressional Research Service, “Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Modernization: Background and Issues for Congress,” http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc85474/ Although polar ice is diminishing due to climate change, observers generally expect that this development will not eliminate the need for U.S. polar icebreakers, and in some respects might increase mission demands for them. Even with the diminishment of polar ice, there are still significant ice-covered areas in the polar regions. Diminishment of polar ice could lead in coming years to increased commercial ship, cruise ship, and naval surface ship operations, as well as increased exploration for oil and other resources, in the Arctic—activities that could require increased levels of support from polar icebreakers.2 Changing ice conditions in Antarctic waters have made the McMurdo resupply mission more challenging since 2000.3 An April 18, 2011, press report states that the Commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Robert Papp, sees plenty of reasons the United States will need polar icebreakers for the “foreseeable future,” despite speculation that thinning ice in the Arctic could make the icebreakers replaceable with other ice-hardened ships, the admiral said last week…. “I don’t see that causing us to back down on some minimal level of polar icebreakers,” Papp told Inside the Navy. “The fact of the matter is, there’s still winter ice that’s forming. It’s coming down pretty far. We don't need to get up there just during summer months when there’s open water. AT – melting ice solvesCRS 2008 “Report to Congress: U.S. Coast Guard Polar Operations,” www.uscg.mil/history/docs/2008CRSUSCGPolarOps.pdf Greater access to the Arctic and potential increased activity in both Polar Regions presents additional risks for people, vessels, and the environment. In the Arctic, there is now water part of the year where there used to be ice; however, more open water does not equate to a safer operating environment. Indeed, it may mean more hazardous conditions for vessels and their crews and passengers if greater access is accompanied by larger, more numerous ice floes, limited navigation information, and harsh and unpredictable weather patterns. Melting ice means more icebreakers neededMiller 12 (Craig Miller, 5/7/12, http://blogs.kqed.org/climatewatch/2012/05/07/iconic-icebreaker-makes-last-voyage-to-scrapyard/ ) Glaciers are slipping away everywhere. It was tough to see this one go. I’m talking about a ship, not an actual river of ice. This morning I watched the retired Coast Guard icebreaker Glacier cast off on what is likely to be its final voyage, from a Vallejo dry dock to a scrapyard in Brownsville, Texas. It seemed like a poignant moment, given the decline of the U.S. icebreaker fleet. Just as Arctic seas are opening up to unprecedented shipping activity, the Coast Guard is left with just one icebreaker in working order. Icebreakers are important research platforms and could play a vital role in responding to oil spills from offshore drilling in far northern waters. Ben Koether sees it as more than poignant. “It’s a tragedy and a crisis,” he told me by phone from Connecticut. “It’s just ludicrous.” Koether is an electronics executive who was the Glacier’s navigator for two Antarctic voyages, in 1959 and 1962. In its heyday, the ship participated in annual re-supply missions to Antarctic bases and was used as a platform for oceanographic research in polar waters. Launched in 1954, the Glacier was decommissioned more than 20 years ago and is well beyond seeing active service. But Koether has been leading an effort to save the Glacier from the blowtorch and turn it into a floating museum of oceanography. Seeing the ship’s 300-foot rusting form depart ADR’s Mare Island shipyard between two tugs, one might reasonably conclude that the battle has been lost. “Absolutely not,” says Koether, who says the dismantling contractor has agreed in principle to swap the Glacier for another one in the U.S. reserve fleet, managed by the federal Maritime Administration (MARAD), but MARAD has yet to approve the deal. Craig Miller The Glacier rests in a Mare Island drydock while its hull is prepared for towing to Texas. Each of its twin propellers was 17 feet across. Koether says the Glacier’s design is “unequaled even today.” Built originally for the Navy, the Glacier had a “heeling” system that could free it from heavy ice by rapidly pumping 140,000 gallons of water from side-to-side. Her power came from giant diesel engines and twin 17-foot propellers and Koether says she was built more stoutly than subsequent breakers in the fleet, with thicker steel and more ribbing. As for beefing up the U.S. polar fleet, prospects appear dim, though the Coast Guard has asked for funding to build at least one more icebreaker. “As the ice melts, you need more icebreakers instead of less,” says Koether, noting that the Russians have more than a dozen in the works, some nuclear-powered. 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