Comments (18) | Add a comment
Senate plan leaves Yucca project off the budget
Tools
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The Senate took an initial step Thursday to end funding for the Yucca Mountain Project when its budget committee approved a 2011 blueprint that senators said contains no room for the nuclear waste repository plan.
The budget plan put together by Chairman Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., "supports the president's request to close the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository and establish a blue ribbon commission to investigate alternatives," according to a Senate Budget Committee document.
The budget resolution is an early but not surprising sign that senior senators under the direction of Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., do not want to continue spending for the Yucca Mountain Project. President Barack Obama has declared he wants to end the underground waste storage program, and a blue ribbon study panel began work last month on searching for other strategies.
Although the Obama administration plan is being challenged through several lawsuits, Reid said Thursday the Senate budget "makes very clear that taxpayer dollars will no longer be wasted on Yucca Mountain and without funding the project is dead."
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who sits on the budget committee, said the panel "affirmed President Obama's decision to shut down Yucca Mountain and I look forward to the full Senate voting to do the same."
The budget resolution is a broad stroke overview of how Congress might prioritize its spending and taxing for the upcoming fiscal year that starts in October. It serves as a guideline for appropriations subcommittees to write follow-up spending bills over the summer.
Senators on the subcommittee that writes the Department of Energy spending bill could ignore the budget plan and set their own priorities. But if they added money for Yucca Mountain they would do so at the risk of crossing Reid, who has made the project's shutdown a signature career issue.
The Senate Budget Committee, by a 12-10 vote, approved a blueprint that calls for tighter limits on spending than what Obama has proposed. Ensign voted against it, according to his office, because it still contained too much "wasteful and out-of-control government spending."
Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.
Comments
Terms & Conditions
The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsiblity of the authors. The Review-Journal does not review comments before publication nor guarantee their accuracy. By publishing a comment here you agree to abide by the comment policy. If you see a comment that violates the policy, please use the Report Abuse button.
Some comments may not display immediately due to an automatic filter. These comments will be reviewed within 24 hours. Please do not submit a comment more than once.
Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.
RSS
Twitter
Facebook
And remember that Nevada doesn't need filthy nuclear energy, or ANY other industry, because it has Steve Wynn looking out for it!
low level waste will come to nevada if we want it, store short term, build a nuclear power plant at the Yucca Repository and start bringing in tax money, now they are making small plants that will run for thirty years on one load of reuable nuclear fuel, the navy runs their submarines for 30 years on one full-up, the new pebble reactor, can be put anywhere, france, Japan, China are grabbing these up to use, and here we sit needing the work, taxes, money to feed our families, the unions should get behind this, let call Harry Reid and tell him we want the new green power plant in Nevada, not long term storage, short term and make power for the western states,arda
A decade or so ago, soon after arriving in the U.S. Senate, Ensign went to every Republican in the caucus to explain why Yucca should be shut down. NONE of them voted with him. Note that Democrats tend to be voting with the Senate majority leader. Thank you, Senator Reid. Nevadans cannot be insane enough to replace you, much less with someone from that sorry field running against you.
Bravo for Harry Reid, who fought hard for this, and 'Thank you,' Mr. President, for listening.
Meaningless drivel.
The lawsuit's will bring to bear the law--and that law the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, is still in force. And the money set aside for it will have to be accounted for, after all, like Social Security, it was supposed to be set aside.
Except--Congress grabbed the users fees and then spent it all!
That's why you can't take anything involving Congress and "budgets" seriously. They pass a law. They collect money under false pretenses. They spend the money for other things. Then they refuse to give it back to those they collected it from.
The courts will straighten out the mess. And most probably folks--Yucca will be built. After Obama goes away.
And Reid--you are done in November.