CONGRESS Energy bill faces obstacle over lawsuits

STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
WASHINGTON -- Congress is one vote away from sending a massive energy bill to the White House, but it could still hit a snag in the Senate over a dispute involving a gasoline additive that has contaminated drinking water in several dozen states.
The energy legislation won solid backing Tuesday from Republicans as well as a surprising number of Democrats as it whizzed through the House by a 246-180 margin, leaving it up to the Senate to take up the bill later this week.
U.S. Reps. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, and Ted Strickland of Lisbon, D-6th, voted against the energy bill, saying it includes a lopsided giveaway of taxpayers' dollars to oil and gas companies and doesn't do enough to protect the environment.
The measure, covering some 1,100 pages, would provide $23 billion in tax incentives and other measures to produce more coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power and double the need for corn-based ethanol, a bonanza for the Farm Belt states. The boost in ethanol production to 5 billion gallons a year has broad Republican and Democratic support and is viewed as a key to getting the bill passed.
But some Senate Democrats are counting votes to see if they might be able to derail the legislation -- the product of 21/2 months of sometimes bitter negotiations between House and Senate Republicans -- by a filibuster. They want stripped from the bill a provision that protects makers of MTBE from product liability lawsuits arising from the gasoline additive's fouling drinking water.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who has many other problems with the bill as well, calls the MTBE measure "a 'get out of jail free' card" for the oil and chemical companies, leaving water cleanup costs to communities across the country. She and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said they have a number of Republicans ready to support a filibuster over the MTBE liability waiver. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said Tuesday the MTBE liability protection is "vital" to stop lawsuits against a product that was used to meet a government requirement for air quality.