62
Opinion of the Court
Reg. 63645, 63647.9 In response, in December 2001, the Coast Guard published a notice of proposed rulemaking addressing one of the recommendations. The proposed rule, if adopted, would require an owner of a nonplaning houseboat for rent to equip her vessel with either a propeller guard or "a combination of three propeller injury avoidance measures." Ibid. The Advisory Council also recommended that the Coast Guard require "manufacturers and importers of new planing vessels 12 feet to 26 feet in length with propellers aft of the transom to select and install one of several factory installed propeller injury avoidance methods." Ibid. Although the Coast Guard has indicated that this recommendation, along with the Advisory Council's other recommendations, will be addressed in "subsequent regulatory projects," ibid., it has not yet issued any regulation either requiring or prohibiting propeller guards on recreational planing vessels such as the boat involved in this case.
III
Because the FBSA contains an express pre-emption clause, our "task of statutory construction must in the first instance focus on the plain wording of the clause, which nec-9 "After discussing the alternatives and their cost, the Council recommended that the Coast Guard . . . develop four specific regulations:
"(1) Require owners of all propeller driven vessels 12 feet in length and longer with propellers aft of the transom to display propeller warning labels and to employ an emergency cut-off switch, where installed;
"(2) Require manufacturers and importers of new planing vessels 12 feet to 26 feet in length with propellers aft of the transom to select and install one of several factory installed propeller injury avoidance methods;
"(3) Require manufacturers and importers of new non-planing vessels 12 feet in length and longer with propellers aft of the transom to select and install one of several factory installed propeller injury avoidance methods; and
"(4) Require owners of all non-planing rental boats with propellers aft of the transom to install either a jet propulsion system or a propeller guard or all of several propeller injury avoidance measures." 66 Fed. Reg., at 63647.
Page: Index Previous 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007