By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Feb. 1 -- Five lawmakers have asked the US Government Accountability Office to assess the vulnerabilities of LNG vessels and oil tankers to terrorist attacks.
US Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) released a Jan. 31 bipartisan letter to the GAO that he helped organize. Signatures were from members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Homeland Security Committee.
"We know from the Sandia report that the potential hazard posed by a terrorist attack against an LNG tanker in Boston Harbor could be quite large," said Markey. "What we don't know is whether the federal government is doing everything it could be doing to mitigate this risk and to assist state and local governments in addressing post 9-11 concerns about the terrorist threat to LNG and other maritime energy transport."
In an assessment of LNG mishaps over water for the US Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy, Sandia National Laboratories said that beyond about 750 m for small spills and 1,600 m for large spills, "the impacts on public safety should generally be low" for most potential spills (OGJ, Jan. 3, 2005, p. 30).
The bipartisan letter asks the GAO to "conduct a review of the vulnerabilities of foreign and domestic maritime energy transport, infrastructure to terrorist attack, and efforts by governmental and private sector entities to reduce these vulnerabilities through enhanced security, planning, and other prevention, preparedness, and response activities."