Byron Dorgan: “I oppose the Boxer amendment. Many colleagues in the Senate feel strongly in opposition, I believe, and we will be able…”

“I oppose the Boxer amendment. Many colleagues in the Senate feel strongly in opposition, I believe, and we will be able to defeat this amendment. And, to qualify for the limited protection that is in the underlying amendment, a renewable fuel must be evaluated by EPA for toxicity, carcinogenicity, air quality impacts, and water quality impacts, and must be used in compliance with any restrictions imposed by EPA. Further, the burden of cleanup for environmental contamination would not be shifted. That is, the safe harbor provision that is in the RFS amendment would not affect liability under Federal and state environmental laws, and therefore would not affect response, remediation and clean-up. Let me make this point clear: the underlying provision would not affect in any way a company's legal responsibility to clean up the contamination of any groundwater by gasoline, regardless of whether it contained oxygenates or additives of any kind.”