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Senators offer icebreaker building plan Bipartisan amendment would have Navy construct up to four heavy icebreakers, then transfer the ships to US Coast Guard Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
U.S. senators representing Alaska and Washington have offered legislation to fund construction of a whole new fleet of heavy polar icebreaking ships.
Their approach involves amending the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 (S. 1197) to allow the Navy to build up to four icebreakers.
The Navy would enter into a memorandum of understanding to transfer the ships to the U.S. Coast Guard, which is responsible for icebreaking missions.
The amendment is the latest twist in what has been a long and sometimes contentious debate in Washington, D.C., over how to address the nation’s lack of icebreakers.
Alaska elected officials have been adamant that more icebreakers are needed as shipping and industrial activity increase in the warming Arctic Ocean.
Icebreakers, however, are enormously expensive ships to build. And refurbishing the nation’s existing icebreakers is likewise very costly.
‘Race to the Arctic’ Co-sponsoring the amendment were Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska; Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
“The Arctic nations are investing in the future to maximize the emerging opportunities there — Russia has 33 icebreakers while we have two at best — and even India and China are seeing the need for icebreakers to gain entry to this newly accessible region,” said Murkowski, in a Nov. 26 joint press release. “The Coast Guard’s own study showed they needed 10 icebreakers to fulfill their duty in northern waters, so I appreciate this bipartisan effort with the Washington delegation in order to protect our waters and remain at the table in pushing ahead in the Arctic.”
“Icebreakers protect America’s Arctic interests and support Washington state shipbuilding jobs,” Cantwell said. “The Arctic continues to open up, creating new routes for commerce and trade — which is why other nations are acquiring new icebreakers. This amendment is an important step forward to ensure the Coast Guard has the tools it needs to secure our interests and win the race to the Arctic.”
Two icebreakers operational Seattle is home base for the U.S. icebreaking fleet.
The senators note that the United States has only two operational icebreakers at present, the medium-duty Healy and the heavy-duty Polar Star.
In 2012, the Healy starred in an emergency icebreaking mission to deliver fuel supplies to Nome, an isolated city on Alaska’s western coast.
The Polar Star is an old ship, commissioned in 1976, that recently was refurbished at great cost. It’s one of the world’s most powerful non-nuclear ships, capable of breaking through ice several feet thick. The senators said the Polar Star was to depart Seattle on Dec. 3 for Antarctica.
In recent years, the United States has been forced to contract foreign icebreaking services, the senators said.
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