Pacific Views

Passing the Bad Energy Bill

Grist reports that the Bush White House is tossing the MTBE football onto the playing field. New Hampshire, the site of the recent primary election and the site of Bush's latest campaign swing, is a state where MTBE is a potent issue. New Hampshire is one of the states that is suing the MTBE manufacturers and also requesting the feds for an exemption from using gasoline with MTBE added.

But MTBE is an issue with considerable political resonance -- not only inside the Beltway, where it was the major sticking point that stymied passage of Bush's energy bill last year, but also in New Hampshire, a state that has been disproportionately hit with MTBE contamination in its drinking water, lakes and rivers.

New Hampshire considers its contamination problem so bad, in fact, that in October, the state sued 22 MTBE producers, claiming that the fuel they sold was a "defective product" that has spoiled state waters. The state demanded that the companies reimburse it for the millions of dollars shelled out to investigate and crack down on MTBE pollution.

So how does this affect the election? Kerry made MTBE an issue during the primary and so garnered a good portion of the environmental vote.

Next, the Bush White House countered the parry by declaring that the EPA would consider exempting New Hampshire from a requirement of the Clean Air act under which MTBE had been added to gasoline.

Furthermore, there is another, more problematic issue with this exemption:

So what will the EPA's move achieve if not cleaner waters in New Hampshire or indemnity for the oil companies? It may give just the needed boost to Bush's notorious energy bill, which stalled out in Congress late last year but which the administration will again be aggressively pushing in the coming weeks. Here's why: New Hampshire Sens. Judd Gregg and John Sununu, both Republicans, have been staunch opponents of the energy bill -- largely because of vehement concerns about MTBE in their home state. The rumor on Capitol Hill is that Gregg and Sununu made a deal with Republican leaders that they would not filibuster the energy bill if the EPA granted the state's request for a fuel-additive exemption.

I would hope that honest conservatives would not sell out the rest of the country for a bad energy bill just because they got an exemption for their own state. What about the rest of the states? And the rest of Americans? Do they believe we should pay the polluters?