US congressional Republicans to offer new energy bill next month

Washington (Platts)--27Aug2004

Republican leaders in the US House and Senate are preparing pared-down
versions of the stalled comprehensive energy bill that will include a
compromise on liability protection for manufacturers of gasoline additive
MTBE, a provision that was widely blamed for the Senate's failure to approve
the bill last year, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens
(Republican-Alaska) said Friday. 

Speaking a Washington news conference, Stevens declined to provide details of
the proposals, but said the two chambers' bills would be similar and would
cost less than either of the versions now before Congress that carry a price
tag ranging from $19-bil to more than $30-bil. Stevens said the measures will
be ready when Congress returns from its August recess after the Labor Day
holiday. "There is a stripped down version coming at us," Stevens said. Under
the MTBE compromise, money from an existing federal trust funded by gasoline
taxes would be use to pay all or some liability claims related to MTBE
contamination of groundwater.

In addition, the bill would establish a special panel to investigate the
legitimacy of legal challenges against manufacturers of the fuel additive in
an effort to cut the liability costs, Stevens said. Word from Stevens that
Republicans will mount another effort to move an energy bill this year came a
day after a senior Dept of Energy official suggested the White House would be
open to a slimmer bill that included the less-controversial elements of the
broader legislation. 

Republican-drafted energy bills have languished in the Senate since last fall,
largely because of disagreements over the MTBE language and the price tag.
House leaders have been adamant that any energy legislation include the
liability waiver for MTBE makers, who face class-action lawsuits in several
states because of contamination to water supplies.

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