In the AP article House, Senate Take up Widely Different Energy Bills Amid Attempts to Resolve Dispute:
A dispute over a gasoline additive could jeopardize hopes for an agreement as the Senate and House worked on Thursday to forge a compromise to deal with the nation's energy problems.
[...]
The chief disagreement, however, centers on methyl tertiary butyl ether, the gasoline additive known as MTBE.
The House bill would protect MTBE makers against liability from lawsuits stemming from the chemical's contamination of drinking water supplies in at least 36 states.
The Senate measure contains no such provision.[...]
The discussions over MTBE, largely among House Republicans, have focused on setting up a cleanup fund for state and communities where MTBE water contamination has been found.
[...]
The fund could have as much as $8 billion, according to some accounts, and be funded by taxpayers and MTBE makers and distributors. But such a fund will not address the MTBE contamination that (communities) ... face today or may face in the future," said Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif.
Capps cites various estimates that the cost of MTBE cleanup could reach $33 billion, both in existing and future pollution.
Barton [ed: Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas] dismisses such estimates and says if they were true, "most of the money is trial lawyer contingency fees" arising from the lawsuits. Barton cites industry estimates that actual cleanup costs could be as little as $2 billion.
Hmm, the costs are somewhere between $2 and $33 billion? Well, that narrows it down.
Anybody know what the benefits of MTBE cleanup are?
