Nation's Mayors Oppose Adding MTBE Liability Waiver To Highway Bill

Local officials, including the nation's mayors, are urging members of a House-Senate conference committee to reject rumored efforts by a prominent Republican congressman to attach a controversial liability waiver for manufacturers of the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) to pending highway legislation, arguing that the move would impose an unfunded mandate and leave local governments responsible for as much as $85 billion in cleanup costs for contaminated water supplies throughout the country. The local officials -- including the...