New Jersey Ordered to Produce Documents On Risks, Benefits of Gasoline Additive MTBE

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection must produce documents on its pre-decisional deliberations about the risks and benefits of the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether in the agency’s contamination suit against several oil and gas companies, a federal trial court has held (In re Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) Products Liability Litigation, S.D.N.Y., No. 1:00-cv-1898-SAS-DCF).

The department sued various corporations for their use and handling of MTBE, and the complaint included claims for strict liability based on defective design, public nuisance, strict liability, trespass, and negligence. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation transferred the case and ...