News sites that ask questions in their headlines attempt to sway opinion!

[harlinchi]

For example, in CNN's article:

Uncle Sam's hand in high gas prices?
http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/18/news/economy/gas_prices_ethanol/index.htm?cnn=yes

it attempts to assert that failure to include liability protections for makers of MTBE has caused the price of gas to rise. I believe legislated liability protections never, ever protect the consumer. I believe these protections from lawsuits benefit the corporations exclusively and that attempts to convince folks otherwise reveal the nature of those who advocate them.

MTBE, asbestos whatever! If this congress, for instance, allows some sort of liability protection to be legislated for the benefit of asbestos makers and users, such as Halliburton, war will have been declared on the American people by 'The Corporations Formerly Housed In And Taxed By America'.

[unblock]

1. this is a small portion of the massive price hikes, if even that

strong demand from china and india, the iraq war, the saber-rattling against iran, nigerian supply problems, and so on are all big factors. this one issue with the rush to replace mtbe with ethanol is a small and short-term phenomenon.

plus, of course, it has the benefit that gas will be free of a known carcinogen.


and i agree that "liability protection" is a payout to the worst corporations. to believe these are justified, you have to first believe that there is a fundamental unfairness in our judicial system, that huge corporations with huge fancy legal teams are still losing at trial when they're innocent. frankly i just can't buy that. my experience has been that companies with deep pockets usually win legal dances long before a case even gets to trial, even when they're guilty.