Nick Snow
Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON, DC, Apr. 22 -- The US House of Representatives on Apr. 21 passed an energy bill that aims to encourage domestic oil and gas exploration by authorizing leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain and streamlining federal permitting. The vote was 249-183.
The bill also contains the provision that stymied similar legislation last year when it went to conference with the Senate: defective-product liability protection for refiners that added methyl tertiary butyl ether and other oxygenates to gasoline.
An amendment, by Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.), to remove the provision failed by six votes. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called it "the disgraceful MTBE giveaway." American Petroleum Institute Pres. Red Cavaney termed it "one of the most misunderstood, and misrepresented, issues" in the bill.
"What's misunderstood is that the provision is very, very narrow," he told reporters prior to the bill's passage. "It protects companies from being sued simply for using MTBE. It does not protect them from liability for negligence."
Asked if this was the single most important issue for the industry within the bill, Cavaney replied, "No question, because it's so pernicious. The essence of what we need has to be in the final package. The legal protection is absolute. It affects everything we do."
Cavaney said that he does not expect the Senate to address the issue in its energy bill, which will again require it to be resolved in conference. But he hopes that more Senate conference members will be more open to the idea than they were in 2004.
"We've personally visited over 40 senators and provided data on the issue," he said. "We've encouraged them to have their staff members review government data, and several say they have changed their outlook as a result."
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