JJ McCanna wrote on February 17, 2009 08:03 PM: Copies to The White House, Sen Reid, MSNBC, CNN


One of my ideas for job creation:

I want the US to run 3 to 4 lines of 30” diameter steel pipe from the Pacific Ocean to the Nevada Nuclear Test site where a desaltation plant, a nuclear power plant, and 6 to 12 each multi story hydroponic garden and fish life tank skyscrapers will be constructed. My plan is funish all of Southwestern US with electricity, water and food.

This plan will require engineering piping design, environmental planning, thousands of tons of steel, Nuclear Power Plant engineering and design, desaltation plant design, and hydroponic skyscraper design.
The fish life serves two purposes, fertilizer for the plant life and food for the population. These skyscapers can be researched in Popular Science magazine archieves since the idea is many years old.

I won’t elaborate here, but this idea will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and could be duplicated in 3 to 4 other sections of the country as well as in Africa and other areas of the world where populations are suffering from drought and starvation. If you carefully analyze this idea you will realize that jobs from just about every field of endeavor will be created, skilled as well as unskilled labor, light construction as well as heavy construction, engineering, science, physics, trucking, as well as manual labor. You name it opportunity for all is involved.


JJ in NV

patrick wrote on February 17, 2009 07:58 AM: Truth:

I don't know what you mean; you never said A SINGLE THING I SAID WASN'T TRUE.

Well I take it back, you SAID everything I said was untrue, yet you actually confirm most of what I said; 80/20 split of $750 million per year works out to Congress appropriating $150 million per year, just so you know.

And are most "ratepayers" also taxpayers or not? Of course they are, does an increase in rates passed on to a ratepayer/taxpayer have a different impact on the ratepayer/taxpayer simply because they are termed "rate increases" rather than "tax increases" of course not.

So, I guess your left with arguing that the remaining 500 workers at Yucca MOSTLY live in Nevada right? Ok, then I guess you have a problem with the statement from "Pete Wilson" who argued that all those people would take all their future taxpayer dollars right out of this state once the dump is closed, because according to you they are mostly really Nevadans.

Ok, so my "opinion" was really not my opinion, it was simply a response to another post, but my facts, are just THE facts.

Truth wrote on February 16, 2009 09:08 AM: Patrick, is ignorance really bliss? Where do you think the employees on the Yucca Mountain Project live (almost 3,000 people at its peak 3 years ago)? In Las Vegas of course. Over a 25 year project history there are and have always been a very large number of Nevadans employed on the project. A very small percentage lives outside LV. When you make claims otherwise it is obvious to anyone even remotely associated that you don’t know a thing about what you say. While it is a nice fantasy to believe everyone on the project gets large salaries. Much of the funding goes to local sources including office supplies, renting office space, utilities, health insurance, etc. I bet Howard Hughes Corporation and their employees are not too happy about their declining rental revenues. 80/20? What are you talking about? The fact is Congress has robbed the NW Fund since 1987, like they did to the Social Security Fund, and are using the revenue collected for safe disposal to help offset their spending deficit. Of the over $750 million added to fund each year Congress appropriates only $150 million or less to fund nuclear waste disposal. Ironically enough, Illinois rate payers contribute the most $ to the fund. If NRC approved construction of the Yucca Mountain repository, the appropriation would increase to $300 to $450 million per year, the majority going into Nevada to fund construction. Does anyone really think given the current economic crisis in LV that eliminating thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of revenue is a good thing? Just because you can voice your opinion doesn’t make it fact (take note LVRJ and Harry Reid), the web is a powerful tool please inform yourself.

patrick wrote on February 15, 2009 09:36 AM: jleo:

Wrong about what exactly?

Wrong about the 80/20 split? No of course not. Wrong about the citizens of those 39 states being taxpayers/ratepayers? No of course not. Wrong about those 400 "contractors" laid off who reside outside Las Vegas? No of course not.

So, exactly what was I wrong about again.

The dump is a bad trick played on Nevada and the "audience" has finally seen behind the curtain and is walking out.

Thanks for the show, now take it down the road to a different group.

jleoxii13 wrote on February 14, 2009 08:48 PM: Patrick,
You are simply wrong. You don't know anything about the fund and how it works, and you don't know anything about the contractors and staff.
Of course, if you live in Vegas, you will pay the price in the form of higher foreclosure rates, a lower tax base, fewer opportunities, and an economy even more dependent on gambling. More businesses will go bankrupt, and your schools will suffer.
You might want to pay that price, but most folks are opposed to pain and suffering, inflicted on others or on themselves. You may treat these folks as one-dimensional. The reality is that they have families. They contribute to Las Vegas. They will be sorely missed. They will truly suffer, and so will many other folks. Senator Reid's only suffering will be his failed re-election campaign, once folks realize he has sacrificed their futures for some mythology that has little basis in fact. My guess is that Senator Reid has enough "other" income that he really won't suffer.

patrick wrote on February 14, 2009 06:32 PM: Your tax dollars are at work on this board!

And for all you (un) employed ex-DOE contractors I say, "welcome to America". You know, the America of cut, cut, cut, cause government is too big.

MEL: Hmm, so the dump ain't spending my tax dollar eh? So, even though the dump is funded approximately 80% "rate payers" and 20% "tax payers", you still wanna tell the poor souls that tax payers aint paying?

And who is a "rate payer" oh yeah, thats right, the citizens in those 38 states (?) I wonder how many of those people pay taxes? I wonder if you told them that the amount they spend per year is increased by paying higher power bills for building the dump whether they would feel better because they weren't paying higher taxes in the same amount. Isn't the effect the same? I mean, would it be different somehow if the government collected the money instead of the utilities who then send it to the government "fund"? I mean, we weren't ALL born yesterday.

And Pete, "be prepared" when those contractors are laid off; why they going somewhere Pete? Oh yeah, thats right, most of them arent really Nevadans anyway, most of them have their residences somewhere else and just use Nevada the same way the feds want to use it, as a dump for their garbage while they jet home to...wherever DOESN'T have a nuclear dump.

Don't let the door hit 'em in the arse.

Pete Wilson wrote on February 14, 2009 04:34 PM: Another P.S. to Patrick:

Not only is that $100,000-per-worker salary NOT coming out "your" tax dollars, but be prepared when the 500 contract workers are laid off. These professionals will not be "transitioning" to other local jobs. They will be leaving Las Vegas. No more property taxes, sales taxes, or car registration fees collected from them.

Pete Wilson wrote on February 14, 2009 04:19 PM: There continues to be a lot of confusion regarding who pays for Yucca Mountain. To reinforce what Mel stated, here are the facts (again):

Customers who use nuclear power pay for the disposal of spent fuel. The federal government collects a fee from utilities.

This money goes into the Nuclear Waste Fund.

As of December 31, 2009, payments and interest credited to the Fund totaled $29.6 billion.

The Department of Energy receives money to pay for Yucca Mountain from the Nuclear Waste Fund through congressional appropriations (i.e., the amount Harry Read "allows").

Yucca Mountain is not financed with federal tax dollars paid by taxpayers. The money is collected from utilities.

And that is my final answer.

jleoxii13 wrote on February 14, 2009 10:49 AM: PS: to Patrick, yea the average rate is $100K per worker. That's cheap, because the cost of living in Vegas is less then elsewhere. I guess that's the kind of high paying job that's terrible to keep in Nevada. After all, we wouldn't want that worker to pay taxes to fund the schools, buy a house, buy groceries, contribute to a church and charity, or anything like that.
And I am sure that Senator Reid's transition program will produce jobs that are at least that beneficial to the economy.
Even my kids don't believe that, and they are young and naive. They still think that politicians are smart.

jleoxii13 wrote on February 14, 2009 10:44 AM: Nevadans should be proud of Senator Reid, who not only will succeed in destroying 2000 jobs but will probably add that many houses to the rolls of foreclosures, which Las Vegas already has the highest rate in the nation. Best yet, he's ensured that the local economy is even more dependent on gambling. Frankly, gambling is much less stable then nuclear radioactive waste -- you read about the meltdown of the casinos in national news and on yahoo. Oh yea, and one local mayor suggested legalizing prostitution as a means of generating additional income.
So, storing nuclear waste is bad, eh? Or, re-architecting the project is bad too. But the staggering high unemployment rate, foreclosure rate, upside-down mortgage rate, casino-bankruptcy rate, and crime rate is better? You've studied the science and figured out that increasing the temperature in the mountain is worse then laying off police and teachers. You've figured out that the odds of a canister breaking open and spiling nuclear waste is higher then the odds of a local mayor suggesting that prostitution be legalized.
Please, my kids are smarter this this. If they aren't, I ground them.

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