Energy bill provision may stop suits over water polluted by gas additive

[salin]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-09-30-mtbe_x.htm

Energy bill provision may stop suits over water polluted by gas additive

By Laura Parker, USA TODAY

The city of Santa Monica, Calif., recently agreed to settle a lawsuit against 18 big oil companies and distributors of MTBE, a gasoline additive that has been found to contaminate drinking water.

Without the settlement — the amount of which is being negotiated — the city's water customers would have to foot the bill for an environmental cleanup that city officials say could cost $300 million.

But suits such as Santa Monica's might no longer be possible under a wide-ranging energy bill that Congress is about to pass. Buried in the massive bill is a paragraph that would give the makers and distributors of MTBE immunity from liability lawsuits like Santa Monica's. The provision protects makers from being held liable for defects "in design or manufacture of ... MTBE."


The energy bill addresses a long list of energy issues, from tax breaks for utilities to oil drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. The House and Senate have passed differing versions of the bill, and negotiators are working this week on a compromise version.

If the MTBE provision makes it into the final bill, Santa Monica water manager Craig Perkins says it could leave cities and local water districts without a way to force those responsible for MTBE to pay for cleanups at thousands of sites across the nation that have been contaminated by the additive.

MORE..........


Hey... If polluters are able to prevent redress in court - such that taxpayers will have to foot cleanup bills.... in a sort of way - isn't this a defered tax increase?

[dusty64]

1. Just when you think it

can't get anymore outrageous. This "plan" is one of the smelliest pieces of shit the rethugs have tried to force down our throats yet. I can't believe it has even gotten this far in light of the total secrecy in which it was created. The Democrats NEED to filibuster and kill this!

[LastDemInIdaho]

2. MTBE proponents should pay for the cleanup

Whomever forced MTBE onto the fuel industry should pay for the cleanup.

[dfong63]

12. that would be ARCO and big oil

according to this salon article .

[seventhson]

3. For the pResident EVERYTHING HE DOES IS A TAX INCREASE

we are spending our way into economic oblivion and catastrophe.

[teryang]

4. This is a globalization commitment

...to avoid the massive fines levied by NAFTA and GATS when elected representative governments with constitutions try to represent the best interests of the public. There won't be a peep out of Congress or the media. You can tell from this artice which completely avoids the more sinister implications of the report. The issue isn't MTBE, the issue is who rules America, national, state, and local. Apparently, it is the mulinational corporations who run roughshod over constitutional government.

The Congress is selling out the American people.

[pansypoo53219]

5. i am so glad

my local station has CORN GAS additive and not MBTE.

[Karenina]

6. That does NOT mean you are unaffected...

Karenina goes digging into her files... AHA! Here it is!

http://www.pei.org/FRD/60_Minutes_Transcript.htm

Please read this.

[nn2004]

9. Congress forced MTBE on us it looks like

Kroft: MTBE is shorthand for a chemical called methyl tertiary butyl ether. If you don't know about it yet, you will. It's a gasoline additive that is contaminating drinking water from Maine to California and has been called the biggest environmental crisis of the next decade. How did MTBE end up in gasoline? Well, ten years ago, Congress told the oil companies to put it there, either MTBE or some other oxygenate that would make gasoline burn cleaner. It was supposed to clean up the air. But now MTBE is turning up in lakes and underground aquifers, and in twenty percent of the nation's urban wells, forcing some cities to shut down local water supplies. It seems to be turning up wherever people look for it. And no one was even looking for it until it turned up in Santa Monica, California, a few years ago.

Anyone know who submitted/sponsered/petitioned the congressional bill that got MTBE into law?

[dfong63]

13. read the article linked to in message #12

surprise, surprise. big oil was in favor of MTBE. they realized they could charge for something that used to be just toxic waste.

[teryang]

16. What?

<Oil companies have said that the government required them to add MTBE to gas. But the EPA says that the additive was not specifically required and that refiners could have chosen to use ethanol or other oxygenates.>

[GregW]

7. You have to be f*cking kidding!

MTBE is one of the worst toxic disasters perpetuated on California. This is actually the only issue I agree with Dr. Bill Wattenberg on (why it should never have been introduced in the first place).

[AndyTiedye]

8. They Say 76 Gas Doesn't Have any MTBE

How do they do it?

[dfong63]

14. the signs say it "may contain ethanol"

... which has its own environmental baggage.

apparently when ethanol-laced gasoline gets into the ground, it somehow enables the gasoline to migrate faster, making cleanup more difficult.

see ethanol problems

[Hell Hath No Fury]

10. Grrrr!

In Lake Tahoe, where Mom lives, over HALF of the basin's wells have been polluted and shut down due to MTBE contamination. It has been a nightmare for them.

How typical of these assholes to try and get their buds out of a sticky situation. :mad: :mad: :mad:

Didn't they try to do the same with asbestors?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

11. Nafta considers regulatory acts "tantamount to expropriation"

MOstly the US constitution does not although some regulatory acts have been considered "TAKINGS"...this is an out and out modification of the US constitution.


How do you spell the Bush family friend's name? Koshiggi? Seem to recall him possibly being on the board of a Canadien company that deals in MTBE although I may completely OFF on that.

[Karenina]

15. YOU'RE BEING POISONED.

Yes, YOU, your KIDS, and yer Grandma! Heads UP!