The Boston Herald News

The Norwegian Dawn, the cruise liner that ran aground as she left Bermuda this week, has arrived in Boston. A story in the Boston Herald says, “Passengers on a cruise ship that ran aground on a reef near Bermuda during a seven-day vacation shrugged their shoulders and said the mishap was no big deal as they disembarked Friday. “The Norwegian Dawn, carrying nearly 3 500 passengers and crew, returned to the Black Falcon Terminal in Boston. The cruise ship ploughed into the reef bordering the North Channel when she temporarily lost power on Wednesday evening. The ship was pulled off the rocks in the evening after a major refloating operation and later assessed by experts before leaving Bermuda at 2.30pm on Thursday.

Mass. environmental regulators have given a tentative ok to another proposed offshore LNG unloading buoy off of Gloucester, after getting about $23.5m in concessions to offset any damage to the fishing industry. The Massachusetts Office of Environmental Affairs issued a certificate of approval to Suez LNG to one day bring specially designed liquefied natural gas ships off the state coast and then pump gas through undersea pipelines to storage tanks on land. The more than $1b Suez proposal is the second LNG offshore project approved by the environmental agency. Excelerate of Texas recently got the agency’s blessing for a similar project - with the same $23.5 million in mitigation concessions.

According to reports, Boston’s aging fireboat has broken down again and is in a Gloucester repair shop, leaving the waterfront without a major city apparatus to protect it. The 30-year-old boat called Firefighter is about to be replaced, though, by a tricked-out waterborne homeland security vessel that is reported to cost up to $10 million. The 76-ft., Firefighter has been plagued with problems and is undergoing structural repairs. That leaves the smaller St. Florian II, a 14-year-old, 30-foot vessel, as the city’s only waterfront protector. The Massachusetts Port Authority’s boat docked near Logan International Airport is expected to cover for the city if needed.

New Haven, Conn.-based submarine builder Electric Boat announced that it would eliminate up to 2,400 jobs, or 20 percent of its 11,800 employees, by the end of next year, citing the declining size of the nation’s submarine fleet and the Navy’s decision to steer repair work to its own shipyards that survived the base closure process, the Boston Herald reports. No decision has been made on the number of layoffs. Most jobs will be cut in Connecticut, but between 500 and 600 will be eliminated from the Rhode Island facility, according to the report. Submarine advocates have been pressing the Navy to boost submarine production from about one to two ships a year. Current projections show the nation’s submarine fleet dwindling from the mid 50s to as low as the 30s.

As the clean-up and recovery in the wake of Hurricane Katrina proceeds, industry and lawmakers are apparently considering opening additional offshore sites for energy exploration and production to minimize disruption to the nation’s energy supply chain in the event of future natural disasters. According to a report at The State.com – South Carolina’s Home Page, some South Carolina lawmakers are pushing for a change in federal law that would allow drilling for natural gas off the state’s coast. Another report from the Boston Herald reports that some Republicans reportedly may advance a plan to let states sponsor exploration for oil and gas in federal waters off their coasts now closed to drilling.

The U.S. Navy could help scuttle plans of a developer that would have LNG tankers trolling through the Navy's torpedo test range in Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay, according to a report in the Boston Herald. Last month, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center asked federal regulators to reconsider the decision to approve a new liquefied natural gas storage facility in Fall River – which would get its LNG via giant ships passing through the bay. The developer, Weaver's Cover LLP, has criticized the center's intervention in the controversial case, saying it was made too late. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission earlier this year temporarily put a freeze on all proceedings until it can decide whether it should rehear the Weaver's Cove LNG proposal.