Boston Mayor Cries Foul
The mayor of Boston Massachusetts went to court to try and stop a tanker carrying 33 million gallons of liquified natural gas from entering Boston Harbor claiming the city was unprepared to handle a disaster should one befall the tanker on its way through the harbor to an unloading facility. The fact that these tankers having been entering Boston Harbor and unloading LNG for years and the potential for a disaster has been there for years doesn't seem to matter to the mayor. Why, one might ask, hasn't the mayor or city officials, in all these years, made provisions to deal with a accident involving an LNG tanker.
What the mayor has overlooked, and a judge in his decision didn't, is that the mayor has no authority over what vessels do or don't travel through the harbor. This is the pervue of the Coast Guard and the Coast Guard has explained that they have made all necesarry provisions to insure the safety of the tanker travelling through and unloading the natural gas.
If the mayor is so concerned about a potential accident and the effects of the citizens of Boston, he should have taken steps years ago to insure the Boston Fire Department, etc. had plans in place to handle an accident. It appears one or more city officials have been delinquent, and the citizens of Boston should take him to task in the next election (oops! the next mayoral election is November 6th of this year).
10/29/01
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