Defeating the MTBE Liability Waiver
When oil companies pushed Congress to eliminate their responsibility for MTBE groundwater contamination, ENS led a coalition that held the line — keeping an estimated $29 billion in cleanup costs with the polluters instead of taxpayers.
The Problem
South Tahoe Public Utility District had won a landmark case proving that MTBE-blended gasoline was a defective product that contaminated groundwater. Oil companies then lobbied Congress to attach an MTBE liability waiver to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 — a provision that would have erased that accountability and shifted an estimated $29 billion in cleanup costs from the polluters onto water agencies and taxpayers.
What ENS Did
- ✓ Participated a coalition of water agencies, environmental organizations, and state attorneys general
- ✓ Defended South Tahoe Public Utility District's landmark ruling that MTBE gasoline was a defective product
- ✓ Made the case to Congress against the proposed MTBE liability waiver in the Energy Policy Act of 2005
- ✓ Countered the oil industry's push to shift an estimated $29 billion in cleanup costs onto taxpayers
- ✓ Served as the lead coalition point of contact for congressional staff through the fight
The Result
The coalition defeated the liability waiver, keeping responsibility for MTBE cleanup with the oil companies rather than water agencies and taxpayers — one of the most consequential environmental legal and legislative victories of its time, preserving an estimated $29 billion in avoided costs.