Oil Giants to Settle Water Suit

[flashl]

Source: NY Times

Some of the nation’s largest oil companies have agreed to pay about $423 million in cash to settle a lawsuit brought by more than a hundred public water providers, claiming water contamination from a popular gasoline additive.

The terms of the settlement were submitted for approval in the federal court for the Southern District of New York. Under the terms of the deal, the companies also agreed to pay 70 percent of the future cleanup costs over the next 30 years.

The defendants that agreed to the settlement include BP, Royal Dutch Shell, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Marathon Oil, Valero Energy, Citgo and Sunoco. Six other companies named in the lawsuit, including Exxon Mobil, did not agree to the deal, said Scott Summy, a lawyer at Baron & Budd and a counsel for the plaintiffs.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs, which include 153 public water systems in New York, California and 15 other states, claimed that the additive, a chemical called methyl tertiary butyl ether, or M.T.B.E., was a defective product that led to widespread contamination of groundwater. The suit contended that the chemical was used by oil companies, even though they knew of the environmental and health risks that it posed.

NY Times

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/business/08oil.html?em&ex=1210392000&en=e5307294b1a694e6&ei=5087%0A

[OKthatsIT]

1. WOW....this should be the biggest post of the day

THIS IS CANCER in the water.

[BeHereNow]

2. And I live RIGHT next to one of the sites- no wonder all of my pets die of cancer.

I just did a search and found a link to a "geo-trackers" web site.
Geo trackers maps out the various contaminated wells.
However, the site has a message that all public water well information
is currently not available.

Imagine that.

BHN

[BeHereNow]

3. Link to geo tracker website: Water Wells PERMANANTLY removed from site...

http://geotracker.waterboards.ca.gov/

From the site announcement-
"Public wells have been permanently removed from public access."

Gee, I wonder who was behind THAT decision?

Seriously folks, EVERY one of my pets has died from cancer.
Wonder how long my family and I have?

Never mind about the Lockheed Martin toxic dump
where we live... that story fell off the radar here too.

BHN

[BeHereNow]

4. $423 million doesn't seem like very much when you consider

their record profits and how MANY people they have contaminated...

Bastards.

BHN

[dipsydoodle]

7. My thoughts too

indeed a trivial amount in context given Shell alone for example make a profit of c. $75,000,000 a day.
http://greglist.blogspot.com/2008/01/shell-oil-profits-27-million-per-day.html

[defendandprotect]

5. Looks like this should be $423 BILLION . . . !!! MTBE is deadly, isn't it???

the compound caused cancer in laboratory rats that were exposed to high doses.

And then some Bush Judge will give it the "tobacco" treatment . . . !!!

[Mojorabbit]

6. Well that 400 something million

won't clean up the water.

[BeHereNow]

8. Kicking for affected DU members.

I know I'm not the only one.
BHN

[flashl]

9. Compare the MTBE payment versus what the taxpayer picks up in subsidies

The 2005 Energy Bill

Section 1323
Allows owners of oil refineries to expense 50% of the costs of equipment used to increase the refinery’s capacity by at least 5%, costing taxpayers $842 million from 2006-11 (the estimate claims the provision will actually raise $436 million from 2012-15).

Section 342
Allows oil companies drilling on public land to pay taxpayers in oil rather than in cash.

Section 383
Allows oil companies drilling in federal land off the coast of a particular state to pay the state 44 cents of every dollar it would have paid to the federal government for the privilege of drilling on federal land.

The royalty-in-kind provisions in this section allow corporations drilling for oil on public land to forgo paying cash royalties to taxpayers. Instead, companies provide an amount of the oil as an in-kind contribution to the federal government. Since federal land supplies one-third of the oil and gas produced in the United States, expansion of this program could have a significant impact on the federal treasury.

The Gasoline for America's Security Act

Alleged ... "To expedite the construction of new refining capacity in the United States, to provide reliable and affordable energy for the American people, and for other purposes."

• The bill give away Federal lands and closed military bases to oil companies to build refineries, without allowing any public input.
  
• Even though the oil refinery industry has seen record profits, the bill provides a new "regulatory insurance subsidy" that could put taxpayers on the hook for unlimited damages if a refinery is stalled in litigation or must meet new regulatory standards
  
• The GAS Act sacrifices the air we breathe for petroleum corporation profits and doesn’t do anything to lower the price at the pump