HR6131DEC8

Expenditures would be authorized from the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund for a variety of projects including groundwater protection, containing toxic leaks, maintaining government tanks, inspections, training tank operators, state compliance and enforcement, preventing regulated substances from being delivered to tanks and protecting tanks on Indian land.

LUST has been a program through which tax dollars are spent to clean up environmental damage due to leaks in underground fuel storage tanks that contaminate drinking water sources. Drivers pay a one tenth of one percent tax per gallon of gas. The money is deposited into a fund to be used for the clean up and prevention of leaking fuel tanks. The fund raises around $200 million per year but little has been spent leaving behind a surplus of $2.7 billion. Las year Congress authorized $605 million but the President only sought $72.8 million. The suspicion is that the monies are not cut loose because the Fund’s funds are more valuable to offset deficit spending and other budget tricks. This bill expands those activities on which the funds can be spent. The bill is born of the 2005 energy legislation that authorized further clean up of MTBE, the highly toxic gasoline additive that helped to cut air pollution by replacing lead as an additive. The idea behind the 2005 law was to prevent leaks before they happened by increasing inspections, training, delivery prohibitions and containment. Congress authorized $155 million in 2005

The President’s 2007 budget only requested $37.5 million but the second session of the 109^th Congress only agreed to spend $17.9 million. As the spending was lowered the cost to States raised to total, debaters said, $899 million between 2005 and 2007. Limiting available money has come at a time when there is a reported 119,000 backlog of confirmed leaks and an annual increase of 10,844 leaks that need to be dealt with. 180,000 sites in 2000 have been reduced to the current 119,000 in 2006.

Sponsor: Rep. Chris Chocola (R-IN-2^nd)

Vote: Passed House by voice vote September 26, 2006. Passed Senate by Unanimous Consent December 8, 2006

Cost to the taxpayers: Spending by year: $75.6 million-2004; $69.4 million-2005; $76.2 million-2006

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