http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/business/monsanto-could-benefit-from-a-chemical-safety-bill.html
Chemical Safety Bill Could Help Protect Monsanto Against Legal Claims
By ERIC LIPTON
FEB. 29, 2016
WASHINGTON — Facing hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuits, the giant biotechnology company Monsanto last year received a legislative gift from the House of Representatives, a one-paragraph addition to a sweeping chemical safety bill that could help shield it from legal liability for a toxic chemical only it made.
Monsanto insists it did not ask for the addition. House aides deny it is a gift at all. But the provision would benefit the only manufacturer in the United States of now-banned polychlorinated biphenyls, chemicals known as PCBs, a mainstay of Monsanto sales for decades. The PCB provision is one of several sticking points that negotiators must finesse before Congress can pass a law to revamp the way thousands of chemicals are regulated in the United States.
“Call me a dreamer, but I wish for a Congress that would help cities with their homeless crises instead of protecting multinational corporations that poison our environment,” said Pete Holmes, the city attorney for Seattle, one of six cities suing Monsanto to help cover the costs of reducing PCB discharge from their sewers.
The House and the Senate last year both passed versions of legislation to replace the 40-year-old Toxic Substances Control Act, a law that the Environmental Protection Agency acknowledged had become so unworkable that as many as 1,000 hazardous chemicals still on sale today needed to be evaluated to see if they should be banned or restricted.
Democrats and Republicans — along with the chemical industry and even some environmentalists — agree that the pending legislation would be a major improvement over existing law. But from legal liability shields to state-based regulatory authority, the House and Senate versions have major differences to resolve. The remaining disputes revolve around the basics of pre-emption: Who gets to sue? And who gets to regulate the chemical industry?
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http://www.lockslaw.com/blog/2016/03/23/monsantos-congressional-get-out-of-jail-free-card
Monsanto's Congressional Get Out of Jail Free Card
As the
New York Times reported on February 29, federal lawmakers are ready to deal one of our country’s largest corporate polluters a Golden Ticket, a Get of Jail Free card to rival all others. Congress is letting Monsanto, the former manufacturer of over 1 billion pounds of the now banned chemical family of PCBs go scot-free after poisoning American communities for decades. It is estimated that this gift will potentially save Monsanto billions of dollars in legal judgments and litigation costs.
The sleight of hand was accomplished by including, at the last minute, an escape clause in H.R. 2576, a bill to update the unworkable and ruined Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. This escape clause is a provision that could shield only one company---the manufacturer of PCBs—Monsanto—from legal liability. The force and effect of the provision are so significant that it is being called the Monsanto bailout clause.
The provision, found at section 7(c) of H.R. 2576, will probably block PCB lawsuits brought by states, local governments, and citizens. It will stop states from passing their own laws or regulations on PCBs. And it is written so broadly it could even stop states and individuals from suing under negligence, product safety, clean air, and clean water laws for damages related to PCBs.
PCBs are toxic chemicals with a long, ugly history. I have written before on the effects of PCBs on the East Coast, and the devastation they have wrought in small towns and villages along our Hudson River. Our environment is poisoned with Monsanto’s creation. PCBs are believed to cause a number of serious health problems, including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other cancers as well as serious neurological disorders in children.
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