Want the Truth? Watching Fox News?

Stuart Varney of Fox interviewed Dennis
Hastert, Republican, Speaker of the House
on August 3, 2004.

Hastert stated that his highest priority
legislative item for 2005 is passing an
energy bill. He also claimed that such a
"law" would result in lower oil prices.

Unfortunately, claimed Hastert, no energy
bill passed in 2004 because of the trial
lawyers!

The real misfortune though, in my opinion
is that Stuart Varney just let Hastert get
away with demonizing trial lawyers, assigning
them all of the blame for America not having
an "energy bill" already (implying that we
can therefore blame trial lawyers for
high oil prices, and by extension, $2 a
gallon gasoline!) Stuart Varney might
have asked, as all of you Enquiring Minds
are surely asking yourselves, "What do trial
lawyers have to do with the energy bill?"

Without additional information there does
not seem to be a connection between
pesky trial lawyers and Congress not being
able to pass the energy bill. Hmmmm....
what *could* the connection be?

Could it be that Tom DeLay of Texas refused
to allow passage of the energy bill unless
"Big Oil" is exempted from liability for
cleaning up their MTBE gasoline additive,
which polluted water supplies all over
America?

Oh. Of course. And explain why MTBE cleanup
in cities and states is something the
Feds need to pass a law preventing?

Well...even though oil is selling for $44
a barrel, Big Oil cannot afford to clean
up MTBE; or, they could clean up MTBE
but then they wouldn't have any money left
to explore for oil, and that would be a
Very Bad Thing. Also, Big Oil was required
to use MTBE by a law that Congress passed,
so why not make Congress pay for cleaning
up the MTBE?

Well...grasshopper, did Congress pass the law
requiring MTBE in gasoline because a certain
Big Oil company told Congress to put MTBE
into the law and require its use in gasoline???
(Congress isn't to blame! They just vote for
the laws, they don't read them. That is the
job of lobbyists!) Anyway, the Federal
Government is broke and only continues
operating because of the money it borrows
each year (nearly $1 trillion during the
last year...)

Therefore, since we can't blame Congress,
or Big Oil, or President Bush for high oil
prices or MTBE -- mostly because it would
be unpopular on FOX and sound like a communist,
anti-business plot -- we are forced to blame
trial lawyers for everything...

And isn't it an interesting coincidence
that John Edwards used to be a trial lawyer?
If John Edwards is the guy who should be
blamed for high oil prices, no energy bill
and most of the other problems facing
American voters, perhaps we shouldn't vote
Kerry-Edwards for President in November!




References:

(1) "History of MTBE"
http://www.mtbepollution.com/About_MTBE/history_of_mtbe.htm

(2) "In The Northwest: The energy bill would
be a hoot if it wasn't so sad"
By JOEL CONNELLY, Friday, November 21, 2003
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/149238_joel21.html

(3) "Removing Protections for Polluters in
Energy Bill Will Boost Ethanol Production"
By Senator Tom Daschle, March 22, 2004
http://daschle.senate.gov/pressroom/columns/04/20040322A04.htm

Excerpt from (3) above:

"It is well known that one of my highest
priorities is enacting a law that I wrote
to double ethanol production nationwide
over the next seven years. It is also
widely understood in Washington that
the major obstacle to the realization
of that goal remains the determination
of a small group in Congress to protect
a powerful special interest, the MTBE
industry, no matter what the cost to
the public interest.

The comprehensive energy bill, which
contains the renewable fuels standard
I proposed along with Senator Dick
Lugar (R-IN), was set for a final vote
last November. At the 11th hour, the
leading manufacturers of the gasoline
additive MTBE convinced House Majority
Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) to insert a
provision in the bill that would relieve
them of financial responsibility in
cases where their product has polluted
groundwater.

MTBE has contaminated groundwater in 43
states and is considered by public
health experts to present a risk of
cancer in humans. It is estimated that
there are at least 150,000
MTBE-contaminated sites nationwide,
and that MTBE has been detected in 35
percent of the nation's urban wells.

Furthermore, the cost of cleaning up
MTBE pollution nationwide has been
estimated to be $29 billion. The DeLay
provision effectively places those
costs on local taxpayers by granting
legal immunity to those responsible
for MTBE contamination. In other words,
the polluters and their friends in
Congress are sticking the taxpayers
with the bill for their own misdeeds.

Approximately 200 lawsuits in twelve
states would be voided by the liability
provision in the energy bill. These
cases are being brought by cities,
towns, water districts and private well
owners. In large part, the damages
being sought are for restoring fresh
water, cleaning the soil, and to
remediate local water systems.
Additional cases are being contemplated
by communities across the country, but
have not yet been filed.

Among the lawsuits that would be wiped
out by the DeLay provision is one filed
by the State of New Hampshire. As a
result, the two Republican senators
from New Hampshire, Judd Gregg and
John Sununu, helped lead the opposition
to final passage of the energy
bill. Some say that the energy bill
would have become law if two more
senators had voted to end debate, but
that is not the case. One of the leaders
of the opposition, Senator Gregg recently
announced, "We actually had a lot more
than six [Republican votes]...If they
had won the cloture motion, we would
have killed the bill on a point of order
[CQ Today, 11/26/03, p. 12]."

At the time of this vote, it was widely
reported that Senate leaders in both
parties were convinced they could pass
the energy bill, complete with its
ethanol provisions, if the MTBE language
were dropped. President Bush even
telephoned House Majority Leader DeLay
on November 24 in an effort to convince
him to do just that. However, Rep. DeLay
turned the President down flat."

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