Chuck Schumer: “I alert my colleagues to one particular provision that is in the bill that is particularly odious, and that is a pretty…”

“I alert my colleagues to one particular provision that is in the bill that is particularly odious, and that is a pretty strong accomplishment given how many pretty odious provisions there are in this bill. But this is the ethanol gas tax safe harbor provision. It is adding insult to injury to make a deal with the petroleum industry, which has always opposed ethanol. They have given them a safe harbor so you cannot sue if an additive causes pollution of the ground water. This bill abolishes MTBE. The Schumer amendment does not change that. The reason so many States have abolished MTBE--and this bill does--is that it pollutes, and all of a sudden we are giving the petroleum industry a total safe harbor exemption from being sued, even if they knowingly pollute. Senator Boxer has an amendment to get rid of that, but we do not even know if she will be able to offer it. Therefore, if you do not like this safe harbor, the one sure way of making sure that this safe harbor is eliminated is to vote for the Schumer amendment, which not only gets rid of the ethanol mandate but also this particularly odious safe harbor.”