Oil Industry Defeats Pennsylvania Bid For Damages in MTBE Contamination Case

Pennsylvania won’t be able to pursue most of its claims against the nation’s largest oil companies for allegedly contaminating groundwater with the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether, according to a July 2 ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (In re Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) Prods. Liab. Litig., 2015 BL 214853, S.D.N.Y., 14-cv-06228, 7/2/15).

The ruling came in multidistrict litigation and dismisses the commonwealth’s public nuisance and trespass claims against 46 oil manufacturers and distributors, including giants Atlantic Richfield Co., ExxonMobil Corp. and Shell Oil Co.

But the Southern ...