My husband worked for ARCO for 25 years, and I have to tell you that the employees hated MTBE. They knew the dangers, but were told that it was government mandated.
I don't doubt it. I also don't doubt that most of the middle level managers didn't know the truth about it either. I worked as a project engineer in a chemical plant and remember well the lengths to which we would go to protect customer safety. As I noted in the piece, it isn't the companies that are the problem as much as it is the owners.