Jim Butler

Director, External & Regulatory Affairs at AlaskaSeas

Speaker

Jim Butler is a principal of Incident Response Group, LLC serving as Director, External & Regulatory Affairs under contract to the Alaska Maritime Prevention & Response Network.

At the request of the US Coast Guard, Jim was part of the initial project team that organized the Alaska Network’s unique structure for combining risk reducing routing measures and oil spill response capability for vessels operating in the US Arctic. Today the Alaska Network supports 475 shipping companies from around the world who have enrolled over 4,200 ships to meet their US oil spill regulatory requirements. The vast majority of these ships are ocean going cargo ships such as container ships, bulkers, tank vessels and auto carriers. Many of these ships regularly trade through the southern portion of the US Arctic along the Great Circle Route through the Aleutian Islands, while many others are now operating in the northern portion of the US Arctic with greater frequency.

To assist drifting or disabled ships in remote areas, the Alaska Network developed a new emergency vessel tow system (EVATS™) that incorporates a patented approach to load sharing between deck bits on the disabled ship, deployment methods that substantially reduces the risk of injury to crews and utilization of high strength synthetic lines. Jim earned his Bachelor of Business Administration/Business Economics and Public Policy from the George Washington University School of Government and Business, Washington D. C. and his Juris Doctor from Seattle University Law School.