Geof Koss and George Cahlink, report that Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, during a markup yesterday. House Appropriations Committee. After seeing a top priority left out of the fiscal 2020 Energy-Water spending bill, Yucca Mountain backers are expected to try to revive funds for the hot-button project, a key House Republican said yesterday.
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), ranking member on the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, said he expects at least one amendment to restore funding for the Yucca licensing process when the full Appropriations Committee meets next week to mark up the $46.4 billion measure that cleared the subcommittee yesterday (Greenwire, May 15). If that doesn't work, Simpson said Yucca supporters will fight to see funding for the project added when the Energy-Water bill hits the floor next month.
Although that will hinge on whether Democrats on the Rules Committee make such amendments in order, Simpson said there's a good chance the chamber would support funding for the dormant nuclear waste repository in the Nevada desert. "Every time we've had a vote on the floor on Yucca Mountain before, it's been 375 votes in favor," he said yesterday after the subcommittee markup.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), chairwoman of the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, acknowledged yesterday that she expects the full committee will have a "big discussion" on Yucca. "Looking at the expenses we are paying every year to commercial companies [for waste storage], as a country we have to be very diligent in finding our way out of this labyrinth," said Kaptur, who in the past has been open to funding for the waste repository in Nevada. "Hopefully that will come out when we move the bill forward a little bit."
She has not heard from Democratic leaders on Yucca, but Kaptur said she's met with many members who have voiced concerns about nuclear storage policy. She suggested the report accompanying the bill could outline some actions Congress would like seen taken on interim waste storage. However, report language is nonbinding and unlikely to satisfy Yucca supporters. While the underlying bill contains funds related to interim storage, Simpson noted that language does not actually authorize the Energy Department to move forward on temporary storage sites. The funds in the bill are intended "to do the study sort of stuff but not actually to go out and do storage," he said.
Under GOP control, the House in recent years repeatedly included funds to continue the licensing process for Yucca at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Those funds always failed to make it into law after meeting opposition in the Senate. Senate appropriators have pushed their own provision that would authorize DOE to conduct a pilot program for temporary storage, but disagreements with the House on the role of Yucca Mountain in a future waste regime has fueled a years long impasse over the issue. "The fact is you need Yucca Mountain and you need interim storage," said Simpson. "You need both."
Nevada Democratic Rep. Dina Titus thanked Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) yesterday for opposing Yucca Mountain, and Simpson acknowledged that the politics of Yucca have made it difficult to break the stalemate over waste disposal. "I'm not blaming the Democrats for this, we failed when we had the House and Senate and the White House," Simpson said of the last Congress, when efforts to revive Yucca stalled over concerns it would cost Republicans the Senate seat of Dean Heller (R-Nev.), who lost his reelection bid to Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.). "I thought we were going to get it done then," said Simpson. "But we were trying to save a Senate seat in Nevada, for crying out loud." He added: "I don't know if Nancy is putting the kibosh on Yucca Mountain because of the Democrats in Nevada or not, but politics always enters this, and the reality is we need to get this done, one way or another."
Separately, the sponsors of new bipartisan legislation that aims to revive Yucca and launch interim storage facilities said yesterday they're angling for a hearing in the Energy and Commerce Committee (E&E Daily, May 15). Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.), a member of the Energy and Commerce panel, noted the broad support in the chamber for dealing with nuclear waste piling up at power plants across the country.
"There's a pretty good bipartisan mix on this one, so I'm confident that we'll get something done here in the House," he told E&E News. Illinois Rep. John Shimkus, the top Republican on the Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change, said he had not yet talked to Chairman Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) about the bill but expects a hearing. The bill, which is similar to one that passed the Republican-led House last year, could also bypass the subcommittee. Tonko told E&E News yesterday that he would try to honor a request for a hearing for the bill but noted an already full agenda for the panel.
"There's so many items coming before the subcommittee that it's really difficult to keep ahead of all the requests for hearings on the issues that we're doing," he said.
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