MTBE, Tom DeLay and the Saudi Connection

[kerrygoddess]

MTBE, Tom DeLay and the Saudi Connection
17 May 2005

A Saudi company, SABIC, is one of the leading makers of MTBE, a cancer-causing gasoline additive, that is widely used in the Northeast. According to federal documents, MTBE has seeped into New England water supplies. The additive, which meets standards approved by the Clean Air Act, is used to make gasoline burn more efficiently, but when it gets in water supplies, it is suspected to cause cancer.

Many state and local governments -- including New Hampshire and 60 communities in Massachusetts -- have sued oil and chemical companies, claiming that they should have known the risks of using methyl tertiary butyl ether. The communities say the companies must pay to clean up groundwater that became contaminated when MTBE-treated gasoline seeped into the soil from leaking tanks.

But the industry -- helped by the House majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas -- has maintained that it should not be obliged to pay for damages caused by a product used to meet a federal requirement for cleaner-burning gasoline.

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