CONCORD – The Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee Friday tabled Attorney General Michael Delaney's request to hire an outside counsel to help with claims that major oil companies were collecting both state and insurance money for the clean up costs of contaminated sites.

Delaney said his office believes the oil companies claimed they did not have insurance so they could apply for state help in the cleanups when they did have insurance coverage.

Wednesday, House Speaker William O'Brien and House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt took Delaney to task for what they said was wasting the taxpayers' money to sue oil companies over price gouging.

But Delaney said the next day the suit was for misuse of the state Petroleum Fund Program money to pay for clean-ups while also collecting insurance money for the same work not for price gouging.

“We believe the State paid millions of dollars to the companies for cleanup efforts based on misrepresentations about the availability of insurance,” Delaney said.

O'Brien responded saying Delaney needs more to provide more information because the request is too ambiguous for the committee to vote on. O'Brien asked Delaney to withdraw the request, which his office did not do.

Committee members did not discuss the item Friday before it was tabled.