Another Problem with the Energy Bill

According to bushgreenwatch.org, the energy bill on the floor of the Senate has some flaws. One of which is that exempts industry from water contamination clean-up. They state;

A provision that halted the energy bill in the Senate last year has again spurred controversy. Aggressively supported by Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex), the provision exempts the oil and gas industry from lawsuits over liability for water contamination caused by the gasoline additive, methyl-tertiary butyl ether (MTBE).

The bill includes a liability waiver that protects producers, distributors, and users of MTBE from cleaning up their own contamination. Instead the burden is shifted onto the American taxpayer.

The oil and gas industries claim it is unfair that they be penalized for using the additive because the government mandated that companies use it to comply with the Clean Air Act. But oil companies knew that MTBE was a threat to water supplies years before the government found out.

The energy bill also exempts the oil and gas industries from liability for water contamination caused by an extraction technique called hydraulic fracturing. The procedure, invented by Halliburton Co., eases natural gas extraction by injecting highly pressurized chemical fluids beneath the ground, often contaminating ground water in the process. Outraged by the effect on their water, communities across the nation have sued oil companies. The proposed energy bill however, will bar communities from being able to sue.