Marine Log - February 2008 - (Page 28)

ICE CLASS TANKERS tion, bottlenecks, and other interstate transportation challenges; and • Establish a board to identify and seek solutions to impediments hindering effective use of SST, with representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal, state, and local governmental entities and private sector entities; and • Issue temporary SST Program regulations for the implementation of the SST Program not later than 90 days after December 19, 2007, and to issue final regulations not later than October 1, 2008. When taken together with the discretionary subject matters in the Secretarial “may” authorizations, these “shall” grants provide the basis for an effective federal program to foster the development of SST initiatives to access the transportation potential of our coastal ocean waters—accompanied by statutory deadlines to provide an incentive for timely Secretarial action in SST Program implementation, and a basis for ongoing Congressional oversight. FINANCING THE PROGRAM: CCF, TITLE XI AND HMT In numerous SST discussions over the past half dozen years it has been generally agreed that two of the most important impediments to the initiation of Everyone agrees that these coastal waters “could” provide additional transportation capacity. coastwise blue water services have been the Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT) and the absence of the two federal support programs that have proven essential to the financing of the nation’s existing blue water container and RO/RO fleets. Many if not most of the initial SST projects can be expected to require the financing of landside facilities and vessel deployments on the basis of market surveys and business expectations—with the result that government financing assistance will be required. Landside facilities can probably be financed with State and local assistance. Financing the multiple vessel commitments to meet the service frequencies that will be needed to attract cargoes from interstate highways to coastal waterways will probably require federal assistance. The Congressional sponsors of the act were mindful of these needs. The original versions of the Act, as reported by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and later passed by the House, included access to two existing Maritime Administration (MarAd) financing assistance programs, MarAd’s Title XI loan guarantee and CCF tax deferral programs, authorizing $2 billion of new Title XI financing guarantees, and the extension of the CCF tax deferrals for SST project use. These MarAd programs, which enable vessel owners to obtain long-term commercial financing and to purchase vessels with taxdeferred dollars over periods of up to 25 years, have been used in combination in the financing of virtually all of the container and RO/RO vessels in current U.S. 28 MARINE LOG FEBRUARY 2008 www.marinelog.com http://www.deltatsystems.com http://www.marinelog.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Marine Log - February 2008

Marine Log - February 2008 Contents Editorial Second Thoughts Update Inside Washington Cruise Growth: Driven by Megaships and Europe Another Piece of the Short Sea Transport Puzzle Putting Together a More Advanced Jones Act Tanker Evolving Propulsion Options for Diesel Electric Ships In Search of Smarter Shipbuilding Seatrade Peview Events Newsmakers Tech News Contracts Website Directory Infodirect ML Marketplace Opinions

Marine Log - February 2008

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