industry groups, especially those of the petroleum industry having 

 extensive foreign experience, have made independent studies and 

 contributed advice on all aspects of deepwater facilities. Oil 

 industry groups are at present in advanced stages of planning for 

 monobuoy facilities on the Gulf coast and elsewhere. 



All of these efforts, together with appropriate inputs from an 

 interagency group of legal experts and from the Council of Economic 

 Advisers, were coordinated in a White House-sponsored study 

 which resulted in the President's recent legislative proposal for 

 Federal licensing of offshore deepwater ports beyond the jurisdic- 

 tion of the states. The proposed legislation, which emphasizes 

 environmental protection and requires compliance with applicable 

 laws and regulations of adjacent coast states, is consistent with U.S. 

 policies on law of the sea. The construction and operation of 

 deepwater ports with appropriate safeguards is deemed to be a 

 reasonable use of the high seas and not to imply national sovereignty 

 in such areas. 



Trans-Alaska Pipeline System 



The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) includes a marine leg 

 from Port Valdez, Alaska, to west coast ports, spanning the Gulf of 

 Alaska. Port Valdez, an arm of Prince William Sound, was selected 

 as the northern terminus of the marine leg because, in addition to the 

 requisite deep water, its use is favored by predominantly low winds, 



SEATTLE 

 'PORTLAND 



# SAN FRANCISCO 



SANTA ANA WINDS 



LOS ANGELES 



The TAPS marine leg (dark area) is the focus of an important interagency ef- 

 fort to provide environmental information essential to the safe passage of the 

 tankers carrying Alaskan oil to west coast ports. 



29 



