Bush reversed regulatory effort on gas additive that pollutes

[Judi Lynn]

Sunday, February 15, 2004 4:15 pm

Bush reversed regulatory effort on gas additive that pollutes


By PETE YOST

©Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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WASHINGTON — The Bush administration quietly shelved a proposal to ban a gasoline additive that contaminates drinking water in many communities, helping an industry that has donated more than $1 million Republicans.

The Environmental Protection Agency´s decision had its origin in the early days of President Bush´s tenure when his administration decided not to move ahead with a Clinton-era regulatory effort to ban the clean-air additive MBTE.

The proposed regulation said the environmental harm of the additive leaching into ground water overshadowed its beneficial effects to the air.

The Bush administration decided to leave the issue to Congress, where it has bogged down over a proposal to shield the industry from some lawsuits. That initiative is being led by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.
(snip/...)

http://news.mainetoday.com/apwire/D80NT7LO0-45.shtml

[WillParkinson]

1. Aren't they nice?

It's amazing how many times they do things that will benefit them and their cronies.

[Q3JR4]

2. A Dem is

leading the initiative?

I don't know about the rest of ya all, but to me that's just wrong.

[uhhuh]

4. Tom Delay? A Dem??

I think you need to reread that.

[Taeger]

3. The real bitch ...

The real bitch is that Rush Limbaugh has found a way of BLAMING MBTE on environmental activists. He claims that they PUSHED for MBTE to be added to gasoline.

I think that they pushed for more fuel efficient vehicles. In return, they got MBTE.

Would someone elaborate on the history of MBTE. I'm a little light on the subject. I'd like some good talking points to dispute this kind of fraud.

[Karenina]

6. Na Du, Taeger

Just cuz you're so wonderful, I went diggging into the bowels of my computer:

http://www.pei.org/FRD/60_Minutes_Transcript.htm

Date January 16, 2000 ~ Time 07:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Station CBS-TV
Program 60 Minutes

President George Bush: (Clip from file video) Every city in America should have clean air. And with this legislation I firmly believe we will.

(Visual of countryside; smog; gasoline pumps with close-up of labels: Contains MTBE; gas station; gas pump; person replacing cap on fuel tank with close-up of gas spill on ground)

Steve Kroft, co-host:

The only trouble with that legislation is that what it required us to do to clean up our air is now polluting our water. And the culprit is something called MTBE, a chemical that the oil companies say they have no choice but to add to their gasoline. Even the government now says that we're facing a national crisis if something isn't done to stop MTBE from leaking into our drinking water.

Have there been studies done on the health effects of MTBE in the drinking water?

Bob Perciasepe (Assistant Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency): Not enough. Not enough. But...

Kroft: But any? I mean, have any been done?

Perciasepe: I'm not aware of any specific studies.

Dr. Bernard Goldstein (Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences Institute): The problem is, how do you expose one hundred million people to a chemical which you have not adequately tested for its toxicity?

Kroft: And that's what's happened?

Goldstein: That's what's happened.

Kroft: MTBE is shorthand for a chemical called methyl tertiary butyl ether. If you don't know about it yet, you will. It's a gasoline additive that is contaminating drinking water from Maine to California and has been called the biggest environmental crisis of the next decade. How did MTBE end up in gasoline? Well, ten years ago, Congress told the oil companies to put it there, either MTBE or some other oxygenate that would make gasoline burn cleaner. It was supposed to clean up the air. But now MTBE is turning up in lakes and underground aquifers, and in twenty percent of the nation's urban wells, forcing some cities to shut down local water supplies. It seems to be turning up wherever people look for it. And no one was even looking for it until it turned up in Santa Monica, California, a few years ago.


Santa Monica, California, is a beach community west of Los Angeles. Ninety thousand people live here, because they like the environment. You can stroll on the outdoor promenade. You can Rollerblade on the boardwalk. You can swim in the ocean. But you haven't been able to drink the water here for nearly four years. That's when the city discovered that seventy percent of its wells were contaminated with MTBE. Craig Perkins is director of public works for Santa Monica.

Craig Perkins (Director, Public Works, Santa Monica): The first that I heard about MTBE was early March of 1998, when my water managers came to me and said, We believe we have to start shutting down water wells because of this contaminant which we've recently discovered, MTBE.

Kroft: You ever heard of it?

Perkins: I had never heard of it.

Perkins says his staff found MTBE in the water by accident, when they sent a routine sample off to an outside lab for analysis. At first, his chemist thought it must be some sort of laboratory error. MTBE wasn't on any state or federal list of possible contaminants, and there were no requirements to test for it.

Did they know what it was? I knew-did they know where it came from?

[pinniped]

5. There's the POS' favorite word again, "quietly".

"The ASSHOLE administration QUIETLY shelved a proposal to ban a gasoline additive that contaminates drinking water in many communities, helping an industry that has donated more than $1 million Republicans."