I’m with Lindsey Graham in praising the new ruling on Yucca Mountain:
Graham Applauds Court Ruling on Yucca Mountain
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) today says he was pleased with the federal appeals court ruling saying the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has been violating federal law by delaying a decision on a proposed nuclear waste dump in Nevada.
By a 2-1 vote, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ordered the NRC to complete the licensing process and approve or reject the Energy Department’s application for a waste site at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain.
“I applaud the Court’s calling out the Obama Administration for their flagrant violation of the law. The court rightly rebuked the Obama Administration for delaying a decision on this important national security matter.
“Yucca Mountain remains the appropriate nuclear waste storage site. In addition, some of the first nuclear waste to be sent to Yucca Mountain would come from Savannah River Site. Today’s ruling is positive news for South Carolina and our nation.”
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The nation needs a place for that stuff to go, and Yucca Mountain is the very wise and practical place that it chose. The current administration was wrong to give into Harry Reid’s purely NIMBY opposition. I’m glad the court agreed.
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Good old Lindsey… if it’s campaign season, he ramps up the attacks on Obama. Then after he gets elected he goes into Rodney King “Can’t We All Get Along” mode. He’s a transparent opportunist.
Just another example of the executive branch defying the law at a whim. Glad the Court benchslapped it.
Bryan,
Or was it that the administration gave in to Reid when they had to; knowing that the decision would later be challenged and struck?
The decision to dump Yucca was uncharacteristic – and therefore likely opportunistic.
On a different level, it does sort of bother me that we were so gung-ho to manufacture the stuff at the Savannah River Site for decades; but now we all just want to pretend like our decisions should be someone else’s consequences – for centuries. Maybe if we are willing to reject nuclear waste, then we may start to resist the importation of all other sorts of waste – including trash and coal – that similarly pollute the state.
“The decision to dump Yucca was uncharacteristic – and therefore likely opportunistic.”
Uncharacteristic of exactly whom, Mark? The decision to construct Yucca has been controversial from day one, fought by environmemtalist lobbies. SC agreed to be the regions temporary, low-level nuclear waste repository until the permanent Yucca site ready.
After hundreds of millions in tax dollars were spent in Nevada, Sen Reid reneged and got Obama to pull the plug. SC got stiffed in the bargain. How can it be surprising to a SC resident that a just court would find Obama exceeded his authority?
“…now we all just want to pretend like our decisions should be someone else’s consequences – for centuries.”
Where has the majority of consumer electronics discards (waste) been shipped now, Mark? Hint: Asia. Where was most of it manufactured? Who is “we all” in those who want to pretend?
Juan, The US spent Billions preparing Yucca Mountain.
As usual, and typical for agenda-driven, libereal ideologues, Mark. you answer none of the questions. Shame on you you for intellectual dishonesty (assuming average intelligence)!
You say, “The US spent Billions preparing Yucca Mountain, but that is a common misconception. The US has spent $Millions constructing Yucca Mountain, but $Billions studying it:
1) “By 2008, Yucca Mountain was one of the most studied pieces of geology in the world with the United States having invested US$9 billion on the project.” – Yucca Mountain Repository, U.S. Dept. of Energy. Archived from the original on August 22, 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
2) “Candidate Barack Obama campaigned for Nevada votes in 2008, promising to stop Yucca Mountain. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, has opposed the repository site in his home state and brokered a deal to get his former aide appointed NRC chairman, who shut the project down. Despite decades of work and about $10 billion in federal money, the 2010 decision came just as a critical phase of the work was being completed. The latest Yucca Mountain Safety Evaluation Report was to provide a comprehensive technological assessment of whether Yucca was a viable repository, but the near-finished work, oddly, was halted.” – August 13, 2013
http://seattletimes.com/html/editorials/2021604805_edityuccamountain14xml.html
3) ” The nuclear industry estimates that utilities, and ultimately rate-payers, have contributed $35 billion to the nuclear waste fund since then, with no return on the investment.” – August 13, 2013, http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2013/0813/Yucca-Mountain-waste-site-Court-orders-nuclear-agency-back-to-work-video
How is that a preferable explanation? You’d rather have a President make a craven political calculation to disregard a federal mandate that he knows to be valid in order to curry favor with the Senate Majority Leader?
As for the policy of it, neither the President nor federal agencies may ignore statutory mandates based upon policy disagreements.
It’s about separation of powers.
Bryan,
I didn’t mean to imply preferable. I offered an an alternate read on what transpired.
As a Westerner (one who grew up downstream of Hanford Nuclear Reservation, which makes SRS look almost insignificant as far as nuclear waste goes) I found both Senator Reid’s objections to Yucca Mountain, and the pandering that he received to placate him, to be playground politics that held the entire country hostage.
By the way, hat tip to Tom Gottshall and Ross Shealy of Haynsworth, Sinkler & Boyd (from right here in Columbia) who were part of SC’s legal team on this assisting the AG. Two great lawyers.
Good for them. Is that the same Ross Shealy who used to write op-eds for us, and who has kept such close tabs on Howard Rich?
I asked him if he used to run that blog. His answer was “Allegedly”.
Tom does an awful lot to make this city better! Yay, Tom!!