The United States Coast Guard issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on August 31, 2009 on long-awaited new regulations concerning the following: (i) requiring owners and operators of nontank vessels to prepare and submit oil spill nontank vessel response plans (NTVRPs); (ii) updating the international Shipboard Oil Pollution Emergency Plan (SOPEP) requirements; and (iii) requiring owners and operators to submit their vessel response plan control numbers with their notice of arrival information. Comments are due on or before November 30, 2009. As explained in a previous Blank Rome advisory available at http://www.blankrome.com/index.cfm? contentID=37&itemID=82, the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2004 (Pub.
