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The Coast Guard announced in the Federal Register that it is seeking public comment on a proposal to amend the requirements regulating personnel permitted to serve as a person in charge (PIC) of fuel oil transfers on an inspected vessel by adding the option of using a letter of designation (LOD) in lieu of a Merchant Mariner Credential (MMC) with a Tankerman-PIC endorsement. Thousands of towing vessels are currently transitioning from being uninspected vessels to becoming inspected vessels. This proposal would allow a PIC currently using the LOD option on one of those uninspected vessels to continue to use that option to perform the same fuel oil transfers once the vessel receives its initial Certificate of Inspection. Under this proposal, obtaining a MMC with a Tankerman-PIC endorsement would become optional for PICs of fuel oil transfers on inspected vessels. 

The Coast Guard views public participation as essential to effective rulemaking and will consider all comments and material received during the comment period. Comments and related material must be received by the Coast Guard on or before Oct. 15, 2019.

For full details, read the Federal Register Notice of Proposed Rulemaking or call or email Cathleen Mauro, Office of Merchant Mariner Credentialing, at 202-372-1449 or Cathleen.B.Mauro@uscg.mil.

This blog is not a replacement or substitute for the formal posting of regulations and updates or existing processes for receiving formal feedback of the same. Links provided on this blog will direct the reader to official source documents, such as the Federal Register, Homeport and the Code of Federal Regulations. These documents remain the official source for regulatory information published by the Coast Guard.