GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin made a visit to Green Bay Thursday to help celebrate a new Great Lakes ice breaker.
She was joined by Green Bay port officials and area business leaders who say it will help transport goods.
“Coast Guard cutters are critical for us,” said Mike Koel, president of U.S. Venture’s Energy Division. “We ship about three to four million gallons per one barge. That takes off the road 400 to 500 trucks per one barge… that’s 5,000 off the road.”
The bipartisan Great Lakes Winter Commerce Act authorized $350 million for the new icebreaker. It was signed into law in December as part of the annual National Defense Authorization Act.
The act also established ice breaking as a Coast Guard responsibility, making it the first time law defines it as such, according to U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-8th District.
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