House Panel Revives Energy Bill (w/MTBE Protection) (Reuters)

(It's the Oil Company/MTBE Protection Act again)

House Panel Revives Energy Bill

Tue Apr 5, 2005 06:12 PM ET

By Chris Baltimore

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House committee on Tuesday dusted off an energy bill that backers say will boost U.S. oil and natural gas production but critics deride as a bonanza for oil companies with no immediate relief for consumer pocketbooks. Republican lawmakers hope red-hot U.S. crude oil prices and record-high U.S. gasoline prices will give momentum to a broad energy bill packed with incentives to increase domestic supplies of oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear and renewable energy.

Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, chairman of the House Energy Committee, said he wants to finish panel talks by next week on a bill that would boost domestic oil and natural gas and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign suppliers. The committee was scheduled to meet again on Wednesday for bill-writing. Democrats criticized Barton's draft version as a give-away for oil companies that offers no short-term help for Americans facing U.S. crude oil prices near $60 per barrel and retail gasoline prices above $2 a gallon. "It will harm the environment, hurt consumers (and) cost taxpayers a bundle of money," said Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the committee.

The legislation is expected to win easy passage in the full House. The Senate has not yet begun writing its version. Barton's draft bill is little changed from legislation that twice passed the House but failed in the Senate because of controversy over a water-fouling fuel additive.(MTBE) New measures were added to ease environmental constraints blocking new U.S. oil refineries and to slash the number of special gasoline blends required to ease air pollution.

Dingell said Republicans declined to consult with panel Democrats on changing the bill. "We're essentially meeting to consider last year's failed conference report," he said. Panel Democrats criticized the bill for failing to improve the fuel-efficiency of U.S. cars and trucks, and doing little to promote energy conservation. Continued ...

MTBE tells the story of American fascism. The oil industries could have used alcohol as an oxidizer, yet when given the chance to turn MTBE from an expense of hazardous waste to fuel, just what are they going to do? Then when the pollution charges come in they say, government made us use it, which is a lie. Of course not that many people know about MTBE, because the controlled media doesn't want to disturb the blissful ignorance of the masses.

So, here we have Congress legislating away liability. How fascist of them.

The Public Radio Show called "Living on Earth" has done a bunch of Radio stories on MTBE over the years, the show, at this link can be heard on Real Audio or MP3 Download.

Living on Earth October 31, 2003

MTBE & Liability mp3

Paying at the Pump mp3

Of course, bottled water companies make gazillions off of this fact.