Jack Fitzpatrick reports that Democrats complained Thursday about a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing about creating a proposed nuclear waste facility at Nevada Yucca Mountain, saying it was a waste of time to discuss a proposal that has little local support and is not going anywhere. Some Nevada Republicans, meanwhile, indicated a tepid willingness to negotiate.
Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.), who testified as a witness, lambasted the proposal and called promises of extra infrastructure funding a bribe. She allowed that they cannot and will not be bought off Titus.
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) noted that the hearing was the committee 5th on the subject of nuclear waste since the beginning of 2015. Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), the Environment and Economy Subcommittee ranking Democrat, said the committee should instead spend its time addressing the levels of lead in water systems around the country. He also submitted letters from Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) and Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt (R) opposing the site.
We are at an impasse, Tonko said, and as they have been for decades, the DEMs will not resolve that here today.
Yucca Mountain was identified as a possible site for a nuclear waste repository in a 1987 spending bill, which critics, including Titus, in her testimony, have called the screw Nevada bill. That is partly because no member of the state congressional delegation was on the conference committee that was responsible for the bill. Nevada formally vetoed the designation in 2002, but Congress overrode the veto the same year.
If the federal government decides to push ahead with the proposed nuclear repository, it would face many barriers. Opponents have filed hundreds of safety objections that would have to be settled in court. The government would also has to officially transfer land from the Bureau of Land Management to the Department of Energy.
same old politics.
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