THIS SEARCH THIS DOCUMENT THIS CR ISSUE GO TO Next Hit Forward Next Document New Search Prev Hit Back Prev Document HomePage Hit List Best Sections Daily Digest Help Doc Contents [Part] Contents CR Issues by Date
[Page: S2797]
The opinion follows:
U.S . CONGRESS,
Congressional Budget Office,
Washington, DC, March 21, 1997.
Hon. Frank H. Murkowski,
Chairman, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, U.S . Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S . 104 , the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997.
If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Kim Cawley.
Sincerely,
June E. O'Neill,
Director.
Enclosure.
S . 104 --Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997
Summary: S . 104 would amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act by directing the Department of Energy (DOE) to begin storing spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste at an interim facility in Nevada no later than November 30, 1999. The bill would direct DOE to continue site characterization activities at the proposed permanent repository site at Yucca Mountain, also in Nevada. Title IV would modify how the nuclear waste program is funded after 2002.
Assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts, CBO estimates that implementing S . 104 would cost about $4 billion over the 1997-2002 period. (The increase in 1997 spending only would be about $15 million.) In addition, enacting the bill would affect direct spending--but not until 2002. Because S . 104 would not affect direct spending or receipts in either 1997 or 1998, pay-as-you-go procedures would not apply.
The state of Nevada and localities in the state would incur some additional costs as a result of this bill, but CBO is unsure whether the provisions causing those costs would be considered intergovernmental mandates, as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA). We estimate that the costs incurred by state and local governments would total significantly less than the threshold established in the law. (UMRA set a threshold of $50 million for 1996, adjusted annually for inflation).
CBO estimates that S . 104 contains private-sector mandates that exceed the $100 million threshold identified in UMRA.
Estimated cost to the Federal Government: The estimated budgetary impact of S . 104 over the next five years is shown in the table below. CBO estimates that building and operating an interim storage facility and continuing the study of the Yucca Mountain site as authorized by the bill would require appropriations of about $4 billion over the 1998-2002 period, resulting in outlays of about $3.8 billion over that period. In addition, section 401 would result in an increase in offsetting receipts in 2002 because it would require certain utilities to make a one-time payment of nuclear waste fees to the government of about $2.7 billion before the end of fiscal year 2002. Under current law, this payment is not expected to be made until 2010 or later.
S . 104 also would affect direct spending in later years by ending the current mandatory nuclear waste fee. Lost receipts would total about $630 million annually beginning in 2004.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By fiscal years, in millions of dollars
THIS SEARCH THIS DOCUMENT THIS CR ISSUE GO TO Next Hit Forward Next Document New Search Prev Hit Back Prev Document HomePage Hit List Best Sections Daily Digest Help Doc Contents [Part] Contents CR Issues by Date