WASHINGTON – Coast Guard
Rear Admiral Steven Poulin announced Wednesday that the agency would “suspend
future rulemaking decisions” regarding designating additional anchorages
on the Hudson River and that effectively kills the proposal, Congressman
Sean Patrick Maloney (D, NY-18) said.
Maloney called it “a victory that the Hudson Valley won together.”
He said the river is “a national treasure that should be preserved
and protected for generations – not turned into a parking lot for
commercial oil ships.”
He termed it “a bad idea from the start.”
Andy Bicking, director of public policy for Scenic Hudson, said if the
anchorages proposal is killed, a half dozen drinking water intakes close
to the proposed locations will be spared from pollution.
He also pointed to the protections approved in Albany.
“With the passage of state legislation last week setting up tanker
avoidance zones in the river, we actually have the ability to have New
York State get ahead of the curve and if a federal rulemaking does come
around in a second generation, the state can be in a much stronger position,”
he said.
State Assemblywoman Didi Barrett (D, Hudson) said the Coast Guard decision
“brings welcome relief from the threat of increased petroleum and
potential oil spills that new anchorage grounds would inevitably bring.”
Assemblyman James Skoufis (D, Woodbury) said he, too, was glass that the
Coast Guard decided to “end this reckless, ill-advised proposal.”
“As we look across the banks of the Hudson, we are grateful to the
many people and voices that came together and again protected this iconic
view and majestic river –one like no other in the world,”
said Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro.
Westchester County Executive Robert Astorino said the decision was “a
clear win” for everyone who enjoys the river. “The federal
government’s plan to reindustrialize the Hudson River and create
a giant parking lot along its banks for tankers was a terrible idea from
the start,” he said.
The proposal was initiated by a commercial shipping industry group, which
asked the Coast Guard to consider it.
Some 20 municipalities up and down the river passed resolutions opposed
to the plan and some 10,000 local people submitted comments against it.
