Oil industry hopes to avoid paying for MTBE problem

[question everything]

Oil industry hopes to avoid paying for MTBE problem

Cleanup costs for toxic gas additive could be billions

By Michael Gardner
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

June 15, 2005

SACRAMENTO – Staring at potential payouts in the billions of dollars, the U.S. oil industry is maneuvering to escape responsibility for cleaning up after MTBE, the now-banned toxic gasoline additive that has seeped into drinking water across the country.

If the campaign is successful, critics say taxpayers will be forced to pick up the unpaid bill.

Oil producers have attached so much importance to immunity from liability that the issue has taken a place right alongside opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and tax breaks as Congress crafts a broad new energy policy.

The House has already approved legislation sponsored by a powerful Texas Republican, Rep. Joe Barton, that would deliver what the industry wants, brushing aside protests from California water officials, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic Attorney General Bill Lockyer. However, the U.S. Senate is widely expected to withstand industry pressure as it takes up its own energy bill this week, shifting the showdown to a conference committee later this summer.

More..

Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050615/news_1n15mtbe.html

[tex-wyo-dem]

1. Isn't it the oil companies who were almost complaining...

that they were so flush with cash that they weren't sure what to do with it.

Hey, I've got a socially responsible idea!....

Oh, never mind...

[consuming]

10. thieves!

[Roland99]

2. Exxon just raked in $34 billion in profits??

Santa Barbara had to stop using its own water because of MTBE contamination.

[htuttle]

3. Looks like they're going to rip us off AGAIN

And the fuckwit in the whitehouse is going to help them.

[Karenina]

8. And POISON you while they're at it.

n/t

[jus_the_facts]

4. We're ALL gonna PAY for it.......the entire environment will.....

.....in many many ways. :eyes:

[mbperrin]

5. Joe Barton (Lackey-Texas) is an oil whore???!!

No shit.

And what's with the IF it passes?

Billions out of our pockets into cleanup firms owned by the experts on MTBE (namely the oil companies). That's right! We will not only pay for the cleanup, we will pay THEM for it!!

Is this a great country or what?

[Trillo]

6. Please tell me again

where the dividing line is between government and corporations in the robber-baron system named corporatism?

[bpilgrim]

7. they got all these extra BILLIONS with gas over $2 a gal and heading NORTH

and they are WORRIED :argh:

peace

[Supersedeas]

9. let's see: Oil Industry v. the Commoners...where WILL the NeoCons come

down on this one?


The Tobacco and Asbestos Industry raise their hands, shouting out of turn, "EEEEEWWWW EWWWWWWW EWWWWWW, I know! I know!"

[ecoalex]

11. Ethanol or cancer causing MTBE they choose MTBE

The Congress had a choice; non cancer ethanol, or MTBE, for $.01 less a gallon, Congress heavily lobbied chose MTBE who knew? Now we're supposed to pay? What B.S.

[splat@14]

12. Good post!!! This isn't new but needs to be said again.

It was part of the first attempt at an "energy bill", that never made it in Shrubs first admin, now its there again. Delay has been huge in pushing this thru Congress the first time. The Senate didn't pass it. Delays contributions from MTBE manufacturer's are pretty large, just do a google search with "Delay" & "MTBE" somewhere in there, and it'll show up. I'm too lazy to post the links.

Same shit with ethanol. The Repubs say it will decrease our requirement from foreign oil. True but, quantities aren't sufficient to make any real difference in imports, its cost more than oil to make it a "fuel" and it is subsidized.

Energy bill = Bad. Repubs voted this last week (check your reps record) to kill alternative energy and stay with oil and coal (no solar, wind, etc).....what the fuck are we gonna do when we are out of dinosaurs?



PS, thank goodness for spell ceck!!