Chemical Engineers in California by Tony Green

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               As a result of life circumstances after I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering I have never worked as a licensed engineer.  Therefore, laws pertaining to professional engineers should not affect my livelihood. Yet after reading one of the American Institute of Chemical Engineer (AICHE) newsletters I was amazed to read Professional Engineers (PE) would be precluded from practicing their craft on the merit on their training.

                More specifically, I discovered Chemical Engineers are not licensed to practice in California without the supervision of a Civil engineer. Based on the current words in the California State Engineers' Act, performing chemical engineer duties unsupervised may be in violation of California State Law.

The inconsistency of this law is made clearer when the Chemical Engineering and Civil Engineering are examined in further detail. Civil Engineers build buildings. On the other hand Chemical Engineers produce materials through chemical and engineering principles in a variety of disciplines, ranging from biotechnology, Petroleum, food & beverage, and alternative energy just to name a few.

               How has this occurred?  In 2001 AB9002, better known as the State Engineers Act, stated only Civil Engineers could practice Civil Engineering. The stipulation which prevents Chemical Engineers from practicing without Civil Engineering supervision problem resulted when the definition of Civil Engineering was defined as including writing reports, managing staffs, mass construction, and doing work on a site which is geographically fixed. Therefore, lawmakers saw fit to include Chemical Engineering under that umbrella. With this definition, wouldn't all the engineers be covered regardless of specialty? We can assume our law makers did not study engineering during their college days.

Realistically, engineering training should not be a prerequisite for public office but shouldn’t someone knowledgeable about the profession been consulting before passing legislation which would prove to have profound effect on the livelihood of such highly trained personnel?

                The bottom line is licensed PE are precluded from practicing in California unless supervised by someone outside their area of expertise.

                The adoption of alternative energies in relation to Chemical Engineer related disciplines cannot be denied. Among the applicable technologies include lithium batteries, composite materials used in wind turbine blades, converting the silicon for use to produce solar power panel, and bio-fuels. The need for trained professional created by the rigorous Chemical Engineer curriculum is clear. What needs to done is to correct this obvious oversight.

                Granted California’s budget deficit and other woes should take are higher priority with our lawmakers than this issue which affects a small percentage of its citizens. What if it was your livelihood which was being jeopardized due to the antiquated law? California is a great to live but there are some common sense things which can be done to make lives better for everyone...

The loss of a submariner by Tony Green

Image of a Royal Navy submarine

By habit when I turn on my computer the first thing in the morning and access the Internet I check the news. By and large the stories are pretty ordinary. On this day, I was shocked to read the story of a shooting on the British nuclear submarine, the H.M.S. Astute, by one of its crew members.  

From my time aboard a nuclear submarine I learned, even though, submariners represent the navies of various countries each of us are bonded by the fact we chose to serve our countries in a fashion others are not either willing or able to. 

A few years back when I heard about the Russian submarine Kursk getting stranded at the bottom of the North Sea many prayers went out to our Russian comrades. Most of us would have gladly left port to participate in a rescue mission if it offered an opportunity to increase the chances of bringing the Russian sailors home.

While meeting other submariners in port typically an exchange of submarine qualification pins referred as dolphins occurs as a show of brotherhood. Even though we may not all be countrymen every submariner is part of a larger community.  

In my view, a brother has been lost who will never return to serve his country or come back to his family.  The tragedy on the incident is losing a sailor in senseless fashion.  Submarines are inherently dangerous due to the nature of the job but when the boat is on port the crew should be safe.

I am sure an investigation will take place and determine the root cause for this tragedy, however, upon initial glance I cannot think of any reason for submariners to want to shoot a shipmate on their boat. Like your siblings growing up on occasions you may not see eye to eye but in the end you are still family.

The submariner community is special. Many do not choose to silently serve their country under the planet oceans, seas, and lakes. The life of submariner is not easy, exciting nor glamorous all the time. Long stretches can go by with minimum activity while in critical situations periods of little and high stress can stretch men to the breaking point. Which leads me to wonder what kind of circumstances could drive a submariner to bring a gun aboard a submarine with ill intentions?