By Debra DeHaney-Howard
December 8, 2003

After months of negotiations, the Senate failed to cut off debate on the comprehensive energy bill (H.R. 6) on November 21 by a vote of 57-40, three short of the required 60 votes needed to close off debate and move it to a final vote.

The more than 1000 page energy bill stalled over a number of issues, including a controversial provision that would grant to manufacturers of methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE liability protection.

A coalition of mayors, city officials and water system operators helped persuade the necessary number of Senators to oppose closing debate on the energy bill, maintaining the legislation's MTBE provision would shift the cost of clean up to local taxpayers. Under this provision, cities and towns would be prevented from bringing "defective product" lawsuits, which some cities have employed to recapture the cost of clean up.

Besides eliminating future lawsuits, the bill also would negate lawsuits filed against the manufacturers since September 5, 2003 based on the argument that the fuel additive is a "defective product." Under the bill, the lawsuits would have to prove negligence on the part of the MTBE manufacture.

MTBE known to help improve air quality has been found to contaminate drinking water supplies, causing water to be foul-tasting and have such an offensive odor that it is virtually undrinkable.

The cost to clean up MTBE contamination nationwide is estimated to be at least $29 billion. At least 500 public drinking water wells and 45,000 private wells across the nation are contaminated, in addition to the approximately 140,000 underground storage tanks still leaking gasoline containing the additive. If the legislation were enacted, the liability waiver would be the largest unfunded mandate passed down from Congress to local taxpayers in recent years. Many states have already banned the use of MTBE as a fuel additive due to its toxicity and harmful affects on groundwater and surface water.

At its Annual Meeting last June, the Conference of Mayors adopted a resolution urging Congress to not enact legislation that would provide liability protection for manufactures of MTBE. A copy of the resolution can be found on the organization's website, usmayors.org.

In addition to the MTBE liability waiver provision, the legislation includes over $30 billion over the next ten years in tax breaks for energy producers, increases ethanol production for gasoline to 5 billion gallons by 2012; requires mandatory reliability standards for transmission lines, increases the annual authorizations for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and Energy Weatherization Program, gives the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission eminent domain to override state regulators and issue permits for interstate transmission lines in bottleneck areas, and repeals the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUCHA), a law passed in 1935 to protect consumers from market manipulations.

The bill, however, does not include provisions for drilling in the Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and increasing the fuel efficiency in cars and trucks, which were two of the more controversial issues during the debate.

The comprehensive energy bill passed the House on November 18 by a vote of 246-180.