Pacific Maritime Magazine News Online for May 8, 2015

  Fidley Watch: Useful Idiots

By Chris Philps
Managing Editor 

There is some debate as to whether Russian Leader Vladimir Lenin actually used the term “useful idiots” to refer to communist sympathizers in the US, but there is no doubt that he said, “Give me just one generation of youth, and I’ll transform the whole world.”

That generation is before us now – not to usher us into communism, but to deliver us from the evils of petroleum and its byproducts. Witness the earnest young people in the photo on this page who, as representatives of Greenpeace, a large, multinational conglomerate, scaled an Arctic-bound oil rig in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to protest the continued extraction of fossil fuels.

One of the founders of Greenpeace, the late Robert Hunter, believed that in order for environmentalism to become a mass movement, it would have to be based…  MORE

Friday, May 8, 2015

Action Alert: Port of Seattle Commission

Oil Fire Damages Tacoma Port Terminal

Metro Vancouver Plans New Container Terminal

BC Ferry Back in Service After Upgrade

Crowley Tug Crew Commended by USCG

Have a news tip to share? Send an email to Mark Edward Nero

The City of Seattle has issued a notice to the Port of Seattle that a lease with Foss Maritime at Terminal 5 needs additional permits to moor and load rigs bound for the Arctic this summer.  (Read full article)

By Mark Edward Nero

An oil fire began around 7 a.m. on May 6 in a chimney stack at the Port of Tacoma’s US Oil and Refining Co. terminal after a tube that carries crude oil through a heat source that separates the oil began to leak. (Read full article)

By Mark Edward Nero

Port Metro Vancouver, Canada’s largest seaport, has filed an Environmental Impact Statement for a proposed new container terminal at Roberts Bank in Delta, BC on Canada’s west coast. (Read full article)

By Mark Edward Nero

The 23-year-old BC Ferries vessel Queen of Capilano recently completed a $12 million midlife upgrade that began Jan. 5 and ended May 5. The ship returned to service in time for a May 6 afternoon sailing from Horseshoe Bay to Bowen Island. (Read full article)

By Mark Edward Nero

Capt. Rodney Layton and his crew aboard Crowley’s Prevention and Response tugboat Alert were recently recognized by US Coast Guard (USCG) Capt. Paul Mehler III, sector commander captain of the port, for their “professionalism, courage, and flawless performance in extreme conditions” during the emergency rescue tow of the drill barge Kulluk off the southern point of Kodiak Island in late 2012. (Read full article)