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First Congressional District of New Mexico
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ask.heather@mail.house.gov

In Washington DC
442 Cannon House
Office Building
Washington, DC
20515
202-225-6316 Phone
202-225-4975 Fax
In Albuquerque
20 First Plaza NW
Suite 603
Albuquerque, NM
87102
505-346-6781 Phone
505-346-6723 Fax

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Congresswoman Heather Wilson, First Congressional District of New Mexico


Releases
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Statement on MTBE Motion to Instruct Conferees July 14, 2005
 
Washington, DC – Congresswoman Heather Wilson today released the following statement regarding a motion to instruct conferees of the Energy Policy Act of 2005: “The Energy Policy Act of 2005 that recently passed the House by a vote of 249 – 183 included a narrowly drafted provision giving manufacturers and distributors of MTBE limited liability protections for claims based upon a defective product. I voted in favor of this legislation knowing that in conference with the Senate MTBE compromise language would be negotiated with members from affected states that would be based on a concept of shared responsibility focused on cleanup. MTBE has reduced smog from cars and trucks and improved air quality. But when MTBE gets in water, it smells and tastes bad and is hard to clean up, raising questions about whether we should continue to use it to produce cleaner burning gasoline. For the last couple weeks, I have contributed to the discussions on a MTBE compromise to recommend to the Energy conferees. I do not believe that the views of states impacted by MTBE contamination have been adequately taken into account to this point. We are no closer today to an acceptable compromise then we were two weeks ago. Additionally, I am greatly concerned by a draft EPA internal risk study that suggests that in high concentration MTBE is a likely human carcinogen. This is the first indication we have had of a public health impact of MTBE. I continue to believe that a lawsuit based system is the wrong way to address this problem. We should spend money on getting the spills cleaned up quickly rather than having a lawsuit based system where people fight in court for years and the lawyers get a big cut of the pie before any cleanup is done. I voted in favor of the Democrat motion to instruct conferees because, at this point, I think we should move toward the Senate language and focus on solving the problem, not litigating it. I would be willing to support an MTBE provision that would create a joint industry/government financed MTBE remediation trust fund that would cover state and local government remediation costs. But industry’s contribution must be mandatory and the government’s contribution must be guaranteed and not subject to appropriations.”
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