Copyrighted Image? DMCA | The Weather Channel's reality series "Coast Guard Alaska" gives viewers an exhilarating taste of what life is like for coasties stationed in the distant reaches of our 49th state, conducting search-and-rescue and fishery enforcement missions in some of the harshest weather conditions known to man.
But starting this summer, the U.S. Coast Guard will have a new purpose in Alaska: babysitting. And you and I will be paying for it. At a time when budget restrictions have forced belt-tightening across the Coast Guard's suite of missions, it is making a major commitment of taxpayer dollars and limited assets to monitor Royal Dutch Shell's Arctic Ocean oil and gas drilling. The Coast Guard is already stretching is dollars to try to overhaul its fleet of cutters -- most of which were built in the 1960s -- while continuing to keep our waterways and mariners safe. Under the proposed budget... |
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At thinkprogress.org
At thinkprogress.org
