WASHINGTON — In a bid to remove the chief stumbling block to long-debated energy legislation, House Republicans on Friday proposed creating a multibillion-dollar fund to pay for cleaning water supplies fouled by a gasoline additive. The cost would be shared by the oil industry and federal and state governments.
The energy bill was thwarted two years ago largely because of a dispute over methyl tertiary-butyl ether, or MTBE, a fuel additive credited with helping reduce smog but blamed for contaminating water supplies across the country.
White House officials and lawmakers from both parties have hoped that rising gasoline prices and growing concern about U.S. dependence on foreign oil would create momentum for an energy bill to clear Congress this year. And the proposed cleanup fund represents the most aggressive effort yet to reach agreement on the MTBE issue.
More negotiating appears necessary, however. The proposed compromise failed to move at least one of the targeted senators, Republican Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, who dismissed it as "more smoke and gas brought to you by Big Oil."
New Hampshire is among the states with contaminated water supplies, as is California.
Gregg's response showed that more White House involvement might be needed to settle the dispute that again threatened to doom the sweeping energy legislation. Overhauling the nation's energy policy has been a priority for President Bush since 2001.
The energy bill, which includes several provisions designed to address high energy prices, passed the House in 2003 but fell two votes short of overcoming a filibuster in the Senate. A bipartisan group of senators objected to a House-backed provision that would have protected producers of MTBE from pollution-related lawsuits.
This year's House-passed energy bill included the MTBE protection provision; the Senate version did not.
To resolve the dispute, Rep. Joe L. Barton (R-Texas), chairman of the House Energy Committee, on Friday proposed having the oil industry and taxpayers pay into an $11.4-billion cleanup fund.
The industry, including gas retailers as well as major manufacturers, would contribute about $4 billion over 12 years. The federal government would pay about $4.5 billion, and states would chip in about $3 billion.
In return, MTBE producers still would be shielded from product-liability lawsuits brought because of contaminated water supplies.
