The invulnerable television channel, FOX, made an excellent comment on the state of our society Thursday. If you missed it, President Bush held a prime-time news conference in order to pitch his plans for Social Security, energy reform and the battle against extremist violence caused by angry people (I’m experimenting with rhetoric — “War on Terror” is so passé).
Whether his suave answers to the probing of the press will be enough to salvage his declining popularity is yet to be seen, but FOX once again leads the way in representative reporting. FOX cut off President Bush’s discussion of Social Security to show “The Simple Life.” O FOX, why hast thou forsaken us? I know that President Bush may not knock your coconuts like Paris Hilton does, but come on. You’d think the legendary conservative citadel would show a little partisan loyalty!
Politicians are transient; sweeps week is forever. I suppose with the renewal of “Family Guy,” FOX and I will just have to kiss and make up.
Unfortunately, President Bush’s proposed policies may need more than a silicon additive to make them look as attractive as a certain hotel heiress. The House of Representatives recently passed an energy bill that President Bush has urged the Senate to sign with all due speed. It probably will go through almost on the nod, but I might as well make my protests loud and clear.
The most alarming part of the bill passed through the house April 27 is a legal provision that protects chemical makers, some of the biggest oil giants in the United States, from all methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, lawsuits filed since September 2003.
The bill has the full support of the gasoline lobby. Considering the
power and clout that companies involved in the petroleum industry have, it’s only a matter of time before these corporations are immune from necessary prosecution.
Ironically, MTBE was supposed to do great things for our environment. Though it was originally used to raise gasoline octane ratings, since 1990 it has been used as an oxygenate, or oxygen enhancer, so that cars emit fewer pollutants. Unfortunately, the chemical also easily seeps into water supplies. It doesn’t cling to soil, so it plunges faster and farther into the ground than other gasoline components. It also easily dissolves into water, making the water undrinkable because of an intense turpentine-like taste.
There is still a vast debate about how much MTBE in the water is too much. In California, the legal limit is five MTBE parts per billion, but the Environmental Protection Agency set the national standard at 20 to 40 parts per billion. However, 2003 studies produced by Lyondell Chemical, the largest MTBE manufacturer, found that even less than one part per billion gives groundwater a “distasteful odor and taste” that could make it “unsuitable for consumption.”
MTBE is harmful to more than taste buds. Lab studies on rats suggest that MTBE is also a “potential human carcinogen at high doses.” Reports also indicate that MTBE causes kidney, reproductive and nervous-system problems. At any rate, 15 states recently have banned MTBE.
The problem is, the harm may have already been done. A survey by the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental research firm, reports that MTBE has been detected in 1,861 water systems in 29 states, serving more than 45 million Americans, including 113 House districts whose representatives voted for the energy bill.
What’s worse, incriminating court documents suggest gasoline companies knew the damage MTBE would cause even while lobbying for its national adoption in the 1980s.
If the energy bill passes, 38 new lawsuits against chemical companies would be voided. Americans would then have to foot the bill for cleanup — a cost that could have been prevented. With state budgets stretched as thin as they are, it is unlikely these water supplies will ever be made pure without the enforcement of the courts. Several lawsuits already have been successful in leveraging funds to remove MTBE through filtration systems.
There are rumors of a compromise involving the gasoline companies that would set up a trust fund to pay claims, much like a similar proposal for asbestos victims. However,
lawsuits not only pay for cleanup; they also encourage change. Immunizing corporations from any new suits will take away the financial pressure to switch to ethanol, which is safer for water systems though more difficult to manufacture. At the very least, Congress should ensure that more studies are done concerning the effects that low levels of MTBE have on humans.
I do find it somewhat amusing that we kicked up so much fuss about possible chemical weapons in another country when we allow so many poisons to be dumped into our bodies at home. I guess any brain tumors I get will just make “The Simple Life” that much more entrancing. Until then, pass me another bowl of popcorn (and please hold the MTBE).

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