Jeff Bingaman: “I do support the amendment. The general rule which has served us well in this country is that if you design or…”

“I do support the amendment. The general rule which has served us well in this country is that if you design or manufacture a product that proves to be defective and that product then injures someone, you can be held liable. That has allowed us to protect the health and safety of the American people. It is a substantial protection for all of us. This safe harbor provision that the Senator from California wants to strike says: No renewable fuel shall be deemed to be defective in design or in manufacture or no motor vehicle fuel that contains renewable fuel shall be deemed to be defective in design and manufacture. To my mind, it is unwise public policy for us to be writing into law this kind of exception to the general tort laws that we operate under in the country. We do not know enough, frankly. We do not know what the scientific and health experts are going to find when they fully investigate the impact of tripling the use of ethanol on the air that we breathe and the water we drink. I certainly hope they will find there is no harmful health effect from it, but to say we are going to prohibit anyone from recovering if they are damaged from the design or manufacture of any of these renewable fuels I think is a big mistake.”