Fears that the President's campaign to clean up the coast and ocean will get lost in committee
When a Rear Admiral finds the time to address a full-house public meeting on the West Coast, commercial shipping sits up and takes notes. Not this time. Pens and pads were put down, eyes glazed over and disappointment reigned.
The occasion was the San Francisco unveiling last week of the President's Ocean Policy, which unfortunately confirmed pessimists' fears that another complicated bureaucracy is on its way. A good idea lost in the execution was the general opinion.
In theory, "bold and decisive" (the phrase used by officials) action is being taken to clean up the sea and coastline. How? By setting up a National Ocean Council, (alongside another supposedly active agency, the Committee on Ocean Policy) which will have at least 30 members. Below this will be, wait for it, Ocean Resource Management Interagency Policy Committee and the Ocean Science and Technology Interagency Policy Committee. A rule of thumb in bureaucracy is "the longer the name of a committee, the less effective it is"
To many people, the existence of the Ocean Policy committee is itself news. Established only five years ago, it has largely remained moribund but is a creature born out of the Commission on Ocean Policy, which ceased to be in 2004, but managed to produce a report before dying. A huge report, of more than 2,000 pages, covering the same issues that the new commission is tackling.
And what did this report call for? "Decisive, immediate action", exactly the same phrase used by President Obama's committee.
Where the new creature could differ is in administrative power. So far, only a Task Force has been formed (to be followed by a Steering Committee and heaven knows what else) and specific authority has yet to be defined. Nonetheless, it seems inevitable that vessel owners and masters will be forced to fill in more paperwork, to prove that they are safeguarding the environment. Shipping lines and ports foresee the forest of permits and paperwork getting thicker.
Compounding the sense of dread among mariners is the fact that the eventual new agency (still to be given a name) will be linked to or have representatives from at least 20 other federal, state and non-profit outfits. That is seen as a surefire recipe for confusion and pointless directives.
And no one is reassured when the opening sentence of the supposedly bold new approach makes a startling observation: "America is intricately connected to and directly reliant on the ocean, our coasts, and the Great Lakes." Hardly the Gettysburg Address.
Beyond the dread is an even bigger sense of disappointment that the White House's zeal to tackle the environment does not extend to clearing away bureaucratic garbage. At least 15 federal departments are involved in squabbling over a cleaner ocean and coast. None will be abolished because of the new being that will inhabit Washington DC.
And that ignores California's own little empires, which have a habit of ignoring federal directives.
Mariners have been beseeching the new administration to simplify the system, not add more confusing layers. A Rear Admiral at a town hall meeting has been the response.