Bass MTBE Plan Fails

(chime) There is a loud clock in Chalie Bass's office. It's a reminder that in this fight - his plan to wade into a thorny issue, MTBE, and create a whole new fund to compensate victims - time just wasn't on his side.

"obviously i wish that my plan had been acceptable to the senate, but that's not something i can control. maybe if one looks back to what i could have done differently was to let this sit for a few months instead of a few days. unfortunately in this business you can't control the schedule"

Late last week, the oil industry signed on to the basic framework of the plan.

They agreed to foot about a third of the cost for a set aside fund to compensate those affected by MTBE leaking into the water supply.

The rest of the money would have come from federal and state sources - and some of that money, such as from the LUST fund, originally came from industry too.

But when the oil industry saw their portion of the price tag - about four billion dollars - they balked.

The industry had thought they'd pay about one billion.

But Bass and his allies refused to lower the percentage paid by industry, or to lower the overall size of the pot - about 11 billion dollars.

So The industry withdrew from the deal, and then the senate refused to support it.

Senator John Sununu commended Charlie Bass on his efforts, which would have allowed New Hampshire's lawsuit to go forward, while shielding MTBE makers from future suits.

"I think the goal of having a fund and protecting the state's lawsuits and the framework that was put forward by congressman bass represented a lot of good work. at the end of the day though, there wasn't industry participation.there wasn't an interest in setting aside the resources needed for actually getting the clean up done and it came apart."

If the industry had agreed to pay their part, Senator Judd Gregg said he would have supported Congressman Bass's plan.

Gregg agrees that a fund would have provided a quicker remedy than years of lawsuits.

But Now with the plan dead, the industry will not be shielded from lawsuits stemming from the damage their product has done.

And Gregg says it's generally seen as a win for the Senate, which has long opposed any shield.
"
yes and no...yes in the sense that we'll be able to go forward in new hampshire, no in the sense that it would have been good we we'd resolved the whole thing so if we had that it would have been the best for everyone, but now there's a lot of money that should go into clean up that's going to be siphoned off for lawyer fees"

The Democratic party in New Hampshire has seized on the second district congressman's political failure, saying that it's no surprise that the plan went down in flames. The party says the bill shifted financial responsibility to taxpayers, becasue two thirds of the fund would have come from state and federal sources. The issue could figure prominently in the Congressman's next election, and could show up on political advertisements. But Bass is unconcerned.

"I'm elected to Congress to do a job, to make a policy. and there's always political riskassociated with stepping up to the plate and proposing new solutions. and i'm not worried about advertising. that's the worst possible reason to be here."

While both of Bass's senate colleagues expressed support for his efforts, Representative Jeb Bradley says he did not support the plan - although a majority of the House of Representatives signed on to it. Bradley says MTBE makers should not be shielded form any lawsuits, and that the proposed fund was not big enough to meet the needs of all those affected.

Two years ago the House dug in its heels on the issue and killed the whole Energy bill.

This year however lawmakers say they will have legislation to hand to the president by the end of the week.