Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Michigan U.S. Senators Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow are calling for “robust” funding in fiscal year 2016 for the U.S. Coast Guard to design and build a new heavy ice-breaker for the Great Lakes region.
Heavy ice in recent winters has seriously impaired commercial shipping and economic activity on the Great Lakes.
Last winter, cargo shipping decreased by 3.2 million tons, costing $355 million in lost revenue and nearly 2,000 jobs.
“That depresses both the regional and national economy,” the Senators wrote in the letter. “It is essential that Congress provides the men and women of the Coast Guard with the resources they need to keep open shipping lanes in the Great Lakes and to conduct search and rescue missions to keep ships and their crews safe during winter’s cruelest months.”
The Coast Guard currently operates nine ice-breaking-capable cutters on the Great Lakes. Some date to the 1970s.
With only one heavy ice-breaker in the Great Lakes fleet, the USCG MACKINAW, the Coast Guard has struggled to combat near record-breaking ice cover on the Great Lakes in recent winters.
The letter was also signed by Senators Tammy Baldwin, of Wisconsin; Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, of Minnesota; Bob Casey, of Pennsylvania; Joe Donnelly, of Indiana, and Sherrod Brown, of Ohio.
Peters is a member of the Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard.
Stabenow is co-chair of the Senate Great Lakes Task Force.
