Posted on 06/15/2005 9:36:34 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
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.
That could set the stage for a possible repeat of 2003 when an energy bill collapsed, partially over an impasse involving MTBE.
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Someday, there will be an energy bill.. someday, maybe..
The individuals who approved this additive, should be held responsible not the oil companies or the tax payer.
Didn't the government make them use MTBE.
I think the best thing would be government subsidizing the purchase of a tap water filter for it. Clanups just hurt the landscape more, devalue property and scare of business usually for the sins of an inventor long since bankrupted. (If only those in government charged with testing it could be charged for not being more thourough...)
Bush has to get out there and pitch this energy bill. It's a slam dunk if he makes it an issue and blames the RATS for doing nothing while gasoline is at $2.25 a gallon and predicted to go to $3.00 and stay there. If Bush can't sell the energy bill he should climb in a hole and hide for the rest of his term.
The "individuals" are the democrats that ran the house and senate and Clinton who signed the MTBE law into effect in 1990. The oil companies were forced by them to add it to their fuel. The DNC should pay for it.
Ten years before it's banned? It should be banned immediately because of the potential ramifications. Our nation's health is at risk, and they propose we have 10 more years of groundwater pollution. What could this government be thinking?
If this precedent stands, private industry can now be held financially liable for damages real or perceived due to practices imposed on it by legislation. Bill Wattenberg on KGO San Francisco has been on the MTBE scam for years.
Not 100% sure, but if I recall there is a contract we signed with Canada to provide the MTBE. 2015 may be when that contract expires.
Waiting till then, contract or not, is ludicrous. It should have been banned in 2000. I also remember KSFO's Melanie Morgan was instrumental in reporting and updating the public about the disasterous effects of MTBE.
How could it get into groundwater unless the underground gas tanks were leaking? Just because mom and pop gas stations don't have deep pockets, they want to sue the maker. Anyway, most gas stations are owned by oil companies and could afford to pay, if negligent.
Hmm, the health effects of beryllium are not so great either, at least in certain forms. Aerospace workers of the 50's and 60's suffered greatly with berylliosis, a chronic and incurable lung disease caused by inhaling beryllium dust. I'd want ironclad assurances this other compound wouldn't do the same thing.
-ccm
Make the Sierra Club pay for it, they lobbied for the additive to be put in the gasoline...
Make the Sierra Club pay for it, they lobbied for the additive to be put in the gasoline...
The EPA, Cal EPA, CARB genius ecoscientists actually designed the MTBE molecule and designed it specifically so that it could be made by chemical companies as opposed to agricultural interests (ethanol). MTBE is a synthetic not natural occurring alcohol molecule, it never existed in nature before it was constructed by ecoscientists. It would be the alcohol equivalent of the Andromeda Strain. (The idiocy amazes even me.)
MTBE was mandated by law in Kalifornia, and ethanol (good ole' corn) was forbidden. All to reward those that cooperated with the ecothugs.
Finally neither MTBE or ethanol is necessary for clean burning gasoline, it can be refined directly from the crude with modern technology, so it was all a hoax for profit.
The oil companies were aware of the potential danger, but they only followed orders. DemoRat-envirothug government employees ordered it into the gasoline and signed the NAFTA deal with Canada to supply it. A deal we can't break trade barriers, you know.
Fat chance! That would be a then-Democrat Congress and the EPA bureaucracy -- both of them unaccountable institutions.
And that's the crime of it! The damn stuff doesn't reduce emissions -- instead, it reduced mileage by about 15% while adding about 15 cents to the cost of a gallon of gasoline.
On top of which, it's a pollutant itself. That would mean we are, literally, screwed three ways from Sunday.
As I recall from the beginning when KSFO personalities help lead the opposition to using MTBE it was said that MTBE was made from refinery waste, or by-products.
The dangers of MTBE first came to light on a large scale in the Lake Tahoe and Santa Monica cases, which involved dozens of drinking water wells that had to be shut down.
Wrong! The dangers first came to light at KSFO's "Can you hear us now!" rallies at the capitol building before MTBE was used to attack the health and well-being of citizens of California. The Cal-EPA, the various air resources boards, political hacks, oil company execs, and lots more should be in prison awaiting execution.
A coalition of water officials and environmentalists launched a nationwide crusade against MTBE. Sure. Years after right wingers led the way.
As I recall from those days, the Republican Wilson administration arranged to give billions to the refineries to speed the MTBE additive process. The money was taken from funds ear-marked for low-income home buyers.
Wilson would never appear on KSFO and it was reported that he claimed at the time that he had never heard of MTBE. Mrs. Wilson got a great board of directors job with ARCO shortly after Mister left office. I believe ARCO had a lot to do with making and selling MTBE.
"Willie! Willie Sutton, why do you serve the public?"
"Because that's where the money is."
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