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Friday, May 26, 2006

Scooby Law Lacks Support in House

By Michael Coleman
Copyright © 2006 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Washington Bureau
    WASHINGTON— Passing a federal law to help prevent kids and animals from drinking deadly antifreeze could prove tougher than Rep. Heather Wilson expected.
    The New Mexico Republican is trying to convince her House colleagues to approve a federal version of New Mexico's Scooby's Law, but she met with stiff resistance over environmental and liability concerns in a House subcommittee this week.
    Scooby's Law, named after a golden retriever who died in Bernalillo after drinking antifreeze in 2003, would force antifreeze manufacturers to add a bittering agent that discourages animals and young children from drinking the liquid.
    The federal bill Wilson has co-sponsored is similar to New Mexico's law, but critics— including Gov. Bill Richardson's office— contend that subtle, but important, differences exist.
    Wilson this week urged Congress to quickly pass the bill.
    "In the last year alone, 74 poisonings happened in New Mexico of children from drinking antifreeze, and thousands of animals have been injured or killed from drinking antifreeze," Wilson told the subcommittee. "This product is very attractive to children and animals, and we need to require that enhanced safety be put in place."
    Scooby's Law passed the New Mexico Legislature last year with broad bipartisan support. But this week in Congress, some Democrats raised environmental questions about denatonium benzoate, the bittering agent required for inclusion in antifreeze under the federal proposal.
    Specifically, critics said there has not been enough research into its effect on ground water. Critics also challenged an exemption of environmental liability for antifreeze manufacturers who include so-called "D.B." in their product.
    The Environmental Protection Agency has declined to take a position on the bill pending in Congress.
    Meanwhile, Gov. Bill Richardson, who endorsed the federal bill in a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman earlier this year, has since changed his mind.
    The governor's environmental adviser said Thursday that Richardson supports a federal law but objects to a provision in Wilson's bill that he said would prevent states from adding tougher liability language than that contained in the federal law. Richardson also said he objects to what appear to be exemptions from the federal Superfund environmental law.
    "These provisions came to light as we were doing more research on it," said Ned Farquhar, the governor's senior adviser on energy and the environment. "If it passed like this, he wouldn't be supportive of it."
    Wilson said the Superfund is not an issue.
    "The bill does not impact the Superfund rules or laws at all," she said.
    She also pointed out that the bittering additive is already in hundreds of household products and has not been identified as a culprit in any environmental damage.
    "The risk is quite low in this case for the additive because it's been used for 45 years in hundreds of consumer products," she said in an interview this week.
    The bill has some bipartisan support— 17 Democrats initially signed on, and its primary sponsor, Rep. Gary Ackerman of New York, is a Democrat. But Democratic support appears to be dwindling. For example, Rep. Lois Capps, a California Democrat, said after the hearing this week that she would withdraw her support for the bill.
    "We need to collect more evidence to analyze the environmental impact and adverse effects of D.B. before legislating on this issue," Capps said.
    Under the House bill, antifreeze manufacturers would not be held liable for damages caused by the bittering agent because the federal government would have ordered them to include it in their product. But manufacturers of the agent itself would remain liable if such damages occurred.
    "No one gets off the hook," Ackerman told the subcommittee. "There is absolutely no gap in corporate liability and there are no loopholes."
    Wilson said in an interview she suspects trial lawyers are driving the new objections to the bill.
    "The trial lawyers want to be able to sue everybody for everything ... so they have multiple deep pockets to go to," Wilson said. "I just don't agree with that as a public policy."
    She also said she was open to suggested amendments in committee to get some version of Scooby's Law passed.
    "We may mark some things up in committee," Wilson said. "There may be another miracle additive invented tomorrow. So we may want to leave some latitude for other types of bittering agent."