mr. chairman , my good republican colleagues and friends are seeing something that they made possible today . 
years ago , in 1995 , they passed the unfunded mandates reform act . 
they should recognize this . 
they said how this was going to stop the imposition of unfunded mandates upon communities and states . 
that is exactly what the amendment does . 
if they had been fair and given this a decent rule , then we would have been able to debate these in a proper fashion and they would not be complaining about surprise . 
but having said this , there are some 80 lawsuits that are going to be able to go forward . 
the judge had this to say about these kinds of lawsuits , and , by the way , they are in new york and new hampshire : `` innocent water providers and , ultimately , innocent water users should not be denied relief from the contamination of their water supply if the defendants breached a duty to avoid an unreasonable risk from their products. '' this bill is an immunity bath for mbte manufacturers and for the refineries . 
that is wrong . 
it should be possible for there to be responsibility where the polluters pay , and that is exactly what this amendment allows . 
it leaves ethyl alcohol and other renewables okay , but it removes mbte from the liability waiver . 
april 5 , 2005 . 
oppose the mtbe liability waiver dear members of the house energy and commerce committee : the undersigned organizations -- representing thousands of mayors , city council members , county officials , towns and townships , drinking water systems and public works departments -- reiterate our strong opposition to providing product liability immunity to the producers of mtbe . 
the liability waiver amounts to a massive unfunded mandate on local governments and citizens . 
mtbe producers , according to documents in recent litigation , put this contaminant into commerce knowing it could contaminate drinking water supplies . 
under the mtbe product liability waiver , these producers would be rendered unaccountable . 
thousands of water sources have been contaminated , and as mtbe spreads , more and more communities will be forced to shut down wells or undertake a costly cleanup program . 
here are some important facts to remember . 
1 . 
mtbe was never mandated , and congress is not obligated to provide the producers `` safe harbor. '' and , regardless , the producers put mtbe into gasoline well before the clean air act amendments of 1990 and with knowledge of its environmental dangers . 
2 . 
one estimate by experts puts the cleanup cost in excess of $ 29 billion . 
3 . 
the liability waiver would retroactively block hundreds of communities ' legitimate suits that have been filed already and could preempt hundreds more , leaving communities with a multi-billion dollar unfunded mandate from congress . 
4 . 
the leaking underground storage tank fund was not intended to address the overwhelming amount of contamination communities are experiencing . 
moreover , taxpayers should not pay for mtbe cleanup . 
please oppose the mtbe liability waiver . 
sincerely , 