The first major congressional hearing into the "chain of errors" in the San Francisco Bay oil spill begins Monday at the Presidio, and the questions are almost certain to produce damning answers for the Coast Guard and for the operators of the ship that spilled the fuel that has been fouling beaches along a 40-mile stretch of coastline. Interviews with maritime experts indicate that pilot John Cota should not have tried to sail the freighter under the Bay Bridge because of questions about the ship's navigation equipment and heavy fog, and the electronics the Coast Guard uses to monitor bay shipping traffic are apparently out of date, SF Chronicle 11/19/07
Recreational boaters might find themselves paying as much as $1,500 for a federal environmental permit every time they cross into California waters thanks to a ruling last year by the U.S. District Court for Northern California required the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate “effluent discharges incidental to the normal operation of vessels.” Sen. Boxer has pledged to seek an exemption for recreational boats but currently they are included in the plan, which goes into effect next September. San Diego Chronicle 11/19/07
HOUSE TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE SUBCOMMITTEE ON COAST GUARD AND MARITIME TRANSPORTATION NOVEMBER 19, 2007 Statement of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom
The Coast Guard did not warn helmsmen of a cargo ship that spilled 58,000 gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay that the ship was poised to hit the Bay Bridge, investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board said. NY Times 11/16/07
Captain William Uberti, the Coast Guard commander for the bay region, had been overseeing the agency's response to the spill. He'll be replaced by Captain Paul Gugg. SJ Mercury 11/14/07
The O'Brien's Group, which specializes in managing messes, is handling the disaster for the container ship Cosco Busan. It is the most established cleanup management company in the United States, probably the world, and it has the longest track record, however there is little oversight or outside evaluation of the company's performance. Virtually everything that O'Brien's was supposed to be in charge of has since been criticized by lawmakers, environmentalists or the public. SF Chronicle 5/19/07
The low-grade, tarry fuel that spilled into San Francisco Bay from the Cosco Busan last week is attracting scrutiny from regulators, lawmakers and environmentalists because of how badly it can foul beaches and wildlife and the amount of soot and sulfur it puts into the air. Less than a month ago, state regulators got the green light from a federal appeals court to ban so-called "bunker fuel" from the auxiliary tanks that power ships' generators. Even if bunker fuel is banned, critics say there are obvious questions about what is used to replace the fuel in ships. Contra Costa Times 11/17/07
Scrutinizing the golf handicaps of major CEOs has become a popular access into normally private lives. Last week the Wall Street Journal ran a story about Bear Stearns Chief Executive James Cayne, who may have played more golf than he should have last summer while two of his company's biggest hedge funds were melting down. The public availability of personal scoring records is necessary if players want to golf using handicaps. Wall Street Journal 11/14/07
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