Archives for September 2000

MTBE banned, for sure. Based on what I’ve read, it’s nasty stuff – a gasoline additive that pollutes the water supply. But the story in the Environment News Service: Billion Dollar NAFTA Challenge To California MTBE Ban ignores a salient point. A US firm sued the Government of Canada two years ago on the exact same issue – a plan by Canada to ban another additive, MMT. The US firms used NAFTA to halt the new legislation in its tracks. They also threatened to sue the gov’t for billions on the same grounds as the Canadian firm is suing the Government of California. The story as it’s now being reported is smug and self-satisfied, painting Canadians as evil foreigners who aren’t quite as sensitive as enlightened Californians. Which is bullshit, just like it’s bullshit that the US is full of greedy opportunists who want to dispense with others’ national sovereignty while holding their own sacred and inviolate.