... the primary global problem is the overpopulation.
The world leaders should better concentrate on curbing the population growth, or better to decrease the population.
However, the dominant "world problems solution" is for many governments the population growth ... to gain more taxes.

      -z

Gore did not invent MTBE. He even did not initiate using MTBE in US. But surely he helped to introduce legislations supporting the MTBE. The list of his contributions is long. So let me just remind the year 1997. Around that time Gore had nominated Carol Browner to be a head of EPA (the Environmental Protection Agency). And EPA continues its governmental role issuing a series of rules related to the Clean Air Act.

There were many reports about increasing presence of MTBE in drinking water (famous at the time the Santa Monica affair), but EPA and the presidential "National Science and Technology Council" (NSTC) did everything to hash the problem ... interpreting the data as "below level of danger", "anecdotal evidence", etc.

Maybe someone would like to read one of the documents, available at
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/regs/fuels/ostpfin.pdf (the "Interagency Assessment of Oxygenated Fuels").

As is the rule, the NSTC is chaired by president (Clinton, at the time) and the v-president (as a member of this council) plays the executive prime role.
So, this way Al Gore had played a very important role into popularizing use of the MTBE.
Clearly, everybody can may mistakes.
But use of MTBE by 1997 was much more than just a mistake. There were already many signals from the academia about the dangers coming from MTBE. What a responsible leader should do in such a case? Should issue an executive order to stop using the chemical (at least temporarily) and request more studies on the subject.
Gore did not do it!
But now he is getting the Noble price for his role in the environment protection ...

The world is strange, indeed.