In today’s news: H.R. 3321: [the] America’s Cup Act of 2011 was just signed into law, ”To facilitate the hosting in the United States of the 34th America’s Cup by authorizing certain eligible vessels to participate in activities related to the competition, and for other purposes.” That sounds pretty legit, right? I mean — wait, hold a second. What “other purposes?”
Well, these other purposes:
(1) IN GENERAL- Notwithstanding sections 12112 and 12132 and chapter 551 of title 46, United States Code, the Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating may issue a certificate of documentation with a coastwise endorsement for each of the following vessels:
(A) LNG GEMINI (United States official number 595752).
(B) LNG LEO (United States official number 595753).
(C) LNG VIRGO (United States official number 595755).
LNG? That’s an odd designation for a yacht. Oh wait —
(2) LIMITATION ON OPERATION- Coastwise trade authorized under paragraph (1) shall be limited to carriage of natural gas, as that term is defined in section 3(13) of the Deepwater Port Act of 1974 (33 U.S.C. 1502(13)).
Huh. Yachts carrying…natural gas? That sounds a bit odd. In fact —
Turns out this isn’t about America’s cup at all. The original bill, which was just about that, was amended to allow Sunoco to re-flag several natural gas tankers as American ships. Which matters in that only American-flagged ships can move goods from an American port to an American port (and must be staffed with an American crew), and Sunoco had previously re-flagged all their tankers in the Marshall Islands — and needed congress to allow them to change back. This was necessary (they asset) in order to move oil — specifically, Marcellus Shale oil — without using a pipeline.
I don’t know enough to judge whether this is in itself a good thing or a bad thing — although I oppose the Marcellus Shale drilling, moving the oil by ship might be preferable to doing so by pipeline — this feels like exactly the wrong way to go about changing things. Who wants to go on record as voting against the America’s Cup act of 2011? Probably many fewer people who would be willing to vote against the Let’s Let Sunoco Ship Some Oil Act of 2011 — but maybe not. It should be at the very least debated on its own merits, not attached to something innocuous and voted for incidentally and perhaps accidentally.
