Another Buttigieg Failure: Merchant Marine Manpower Deficit Sidelines 17 Support Ships For Wartime 

August 27, 2024 — bunkerville

 

The winds of war are blustering around the globe. While our leadership is concerned about “wokeness” our Merchant Marine crews are at such a low level, 17 support ships for our Navy are no longer operational. Add this to Buttigieg’s long line of failures including the EV charging stations that we spent billions on, only to have 8 at last count. Earlier we posted about Pete’s focus: Last yearL

Transportation Buttigieg: Roads Kill More Blacks, Racism Built Into Our Highways

He might just want to check on our supply chain issues, especially now with the new regs in California that has taken out many independent truckers.  Container ships are backing up waiting to be unloaded.

Here we go with the latest:

The list of failures is quickly growing with Buttigieg, and this time, it’s more serious than ever, as maritime news website USNI News reported:

“Military Sealift Command has drafted a plan to remove the crews from 17 Navy support ships due to a lack of qualified mariners to operate the vessels across the Navy.” 

USNI provided more color on the labor shortage affecting Merchant Marines: 

The MSC “force generation reset” identified two Lewis and Clark replenishment ships, one fleet oiler, a dozen Spearhead-class Expeditionary Fast Transports (EPF) and two forward-deployed Navy expeditionary sea bases that would enter an “extended maintenance” period and have their crews retasked to other ships in the fleet, three people familiar with the plan told USNI News Thursday.

Based on the crew requirements on the platforms, sideling all the ships could reduce the civilian mariner demand for MSC by as many as 700 billets.

The support ships are part of the Merchant Marines fleet, overseen by the Maritime Administration, an agency of the Department of Transportation, which makes this Buttigieg’s responsibility at the end of the day.

Fox News Digital spoke with Rear Admiral (Ret.) Mark Montgomery, senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, stated that the Merchant Marines don’t have enough manpower to keep the 17 support ships operational. These include replenishment vessels, tankers, and other crucial ships needed to deliver military personnel and weapons worldwide. 

Under Buttigieg’s watch, this has morphed into a crisis of war preparedness, as the Biden-Harris team seems to be mishandling conflicts around the world, which has stoked, as Trump said, nuclear war risks. 

This is not a new problem. This is from five years ago.

This video details why a strong, U.S.-flagged merchant marine is critical to our national security.

 

For the full story, read Zero Hedge

Posted in Government. Tags: , , . 49 Comments »

Add another UK Ship on Fire in the Red Sea as it Becomes Littered with Disabled Tankers.

February 23, 2024 — bunkerville

One can only speculate why the most powerful nation on earth is allowing the Houthis to have their way in the Red Sea. Yet, we hear nothing about what is going on there, only the constant drum beat over Ukraine. In truth allowing shipping being curtailed could have far more reaching ramifications on the U.S. and Britain.

Perhaps it was because Trump said Houthis were “bad.” As soon a Biden took office, they were “good.” Now no doubt Biden would just like to “forget about it.”

The US-led coalition named Operation Prosperity Guardian has not deterred these attack. If anything, they’ve only escalated

Zero Hedge:

The last several days have witnessed well over half a dozen attacks or attempted attacks by Houthis on foreign vessels and tankers in the Red Sea. For example the US military confirmed Tuesday that two US-owned tankers were struck the day prior. Such attacks are now coming several times a day.

On Thursday the Pentagon said its coalition ships in the Red Sea intercepted six more drones over waters off Yemen. This came after another UK-owned ship was struck, and is reportedly burning and immobile some 70 nautical miles southeast of Aden.

A new United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency alert said the British-owned, Palau-flagged ship was hit by two missiles while en route from Thailand to Egypt.

Increasingly, waters off Yemen are being littered with disabled and sinking tankers, as the saga of the Belize-flagged, British-registered Rubymar has shown. Earlier in the week it was hit by Houthi fire and the crew abandoned ship. 

There are reports that the vessel’s operators are currently trying to tow the ship to Djibouti, and that it remains partially below water, the engine room having suffered severe damage.

BBC wrote of one image widely circulating that it is “said to be from Tuesday and shows a vessel still above water. It is down by the stern, but has not sunk. Although the ship’s name is not visible, all of its characteristics match those of the Rubymar.”

…

According to the latest from the Houthi military spokesman Thursday: “In response to the US-UK aggression, the armed forces of Yemen carried out 3 operations”…

  • The launching of a number of ballistic missiles and drones at various targets in Umm al-Rashrash (Eilat), south of occupied Palestine.
  • The targeting of a British ship “ISLANDER” in the Gulf of Aden, using anti-ship missiles. The ship was directly hit, leading to a fire on board.
  • The targeting of an American destroyer (warship) in the Red Sea using a number of kamikaze drones.

Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM has written in a new note, “If anything, Houthis attacks on cargo ships are intensifying in the Red Sea and around the Gulf of Aden.” The US-led coalition named Operation Prosperity Guardian has not deterred these attack. If anything, they’ve only escalated.

Recent attacks on ships launched by Yemen’s Houthi militia group have threatened one of the world’s most crucial trade routes — the Suez Canal. As several shipping companies divert their vessels, About That producer Lauren Bird explains the economic ramifications of it all.

The best of the swamp.

Posted in Foreign Policy. Tags: , , , , . 38 Comments »

Russian Nat Gas has to be imported to New England but let’s get on Merkel

July 16, 2018 — bunkerville

 

Trump huffs and puffs over Merkel’s arrangement for one big beautiful pipeline to run from Putin’s domain into the heart of Germany, guess who is dependent on the very same Nat gas from Putin? Massachusetts for one, and the rate the environmentalists are going, more of us to come. I had picked this story up last Winter as it looked like some Americans fingers might get a nip for lack of heat.

 

An excellent example of just what has been allowed to happen that puts Americans at risk by a few nitwits. There, I said it and I cut to the chase.

Even the Boston Globe opined that “Massachusetts’ reliance on imported gas from one of the world’s most threatened places is also a severe indictment of the state’s inward-looking environmental and climate policies.”

 

This winter’s unprecedented imports of Russian liquefied natural gas have already come under fire from Greater Boston’s Ukrainian-American community, because the majority shareholder of the firm that extracted the fuel has been sanctioned by the US government for its links to the war in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea. Last week, in response to the outcry, a group of Massachusetts lawmakers, led by Senator Ed Markey, blasted the shipments and called on the federalgovernment to stop them.

From the post from the Boston Globe and well worth a read Our Russian ‘pipeline,’ and its ugly toll

 

Better yet, the Jones Act precludes Americans helping out other Americans:

The U.S. has several LNG export facilities that are already operational or will come online in the coming years. Why can’t we ship American LNG to Boston?

One reason is an antiquated federal law from 1920 – the Jones Act – that prohibits cargoes from being transported between U.S. ports unless they are carried on American-flagged ships.

The stupid thing:

There are about 150,000 miles of oil pipelines and more than 1.5 million miles of natural gas pipelines in theUnited States. ALREADY! 

The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently announced that in 2017, for the first time since 1957, the U.S. exported more natural gas than it imported.

Yet, even as we become a global energy superpower, political barriers prevent us from maximizing the benefits of the shale revolution.

Earlier this year, New England — located just a few hundred miles from the Marcellus Shale, one of the world’s largest natural gas fields — was forced to import a cargo of Russian liquefied natural gas. This was necessary because anti-energy activists have convinced local elected leaders to block new energy infrastructure, including pipelines that could bring American gas to the region. This is making households in the Northeast more dependent on imported energy, and forcing them to pay among the highest energy bills in the country. More at Washington Examiner

Here are a couple of sites where one can find out pipeline locations down to the county.

Pipeline101 – Where-Are-Pipelines-Located

 

Interactive map of pipelines in the United States | American …

he National Pipeline Mapping System (NPMS) Public Viewer from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration allows users to view pipelines and related information by individual county for the entire United States. The map includes: Gas and hazardous liquid pipelines.

 

Posted in Energy, Green. Tags: , , , , , , , . 11 Comments »

Natural Gas from Putin’s Russia has to be imported to New England

March 26, 2018 — bunkerville

 

Earlier this year, New England had to import a cargo of Russian liquefied natural gas, even though it is located just a few hundred miles from one of the largest natural gas fields in the world.

So reads the caption. An excellent example of just what has been allowed to happen that puts Americans at risk by a few nitwits. There, I said it and I cut to the chase.

Even the Boston Globe opined that “Massachusetts’ reliance on imported gas from one of the world’s most threatened places is also a severe indictment of the state’s inward-looking environmental and climate policies.”

Better yet, the Jones Act precludes Americans helping out other Americans:

The U.S. has several LNG export facilities that are already operational or will come online in the coming years. Why can’t we ship American LNG to Boston?

One reason is an antiquated federal law from 1920 – the Jones Act – that prohibits cargoes from being transported between U.S. ports unless they are carried on American-flagged ships.

The stupid thing:

There are about 150,000 miles of oil pipelines and more than 1.5 million miles of natural gas pipelines in theUnited States. ALREADY! 

The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently announced that in 2017, for the first time since 1957, the U.S. exported more natural gas than it imported.

Yet, even as we become a global energy superpower, political barriers prevent us from maximizing the benefits of the shale revolution.

Earlier this year, New England — located just a few hundred miles from the Marcellus Shale, one of the world’s largest natural gas fields — was forced to import a cargo of Russian liquefied natural gas. This was necessary because anti-energy activists have convinced local elected leaders to block new energy infrastructure, including pipelines that could bring American gas to the region. This is making households in the Northeast more dependent on imported energy, and forcing them to pay among the highest energy bills in the country. More at Washington Examiner

 

Here are a couple of sites where one can find out pipeline locations down to the county.

Pipeline101 – Where-Are-Pipelines-Located

 

Interactive map of pipelines in the United States | American …

https://www.americangeosciences.org/critical…/interactive-map-pipelines-united-states

The National Pipeline Mapping System (NPMS) Public Viewer from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration allows users to view pipelines and related information by individual county for the entire United States. The map includes: Gas and hazardous liquid pipelines.

Posted in Energy, Green. Tags: , , , , , . 8 Comments »