In a stunning rebuke to the House Commerce Committee, the House Resources Committee today issued an unfavorable report on the Mobile Chernobyl bill, HR 1270 (officially the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1997). This legislation would repeal existing high-level nuclear waste laws and replace them with an ill-advised industry sponsored mandate to start shipping high-level nuclear waste to a parking-lot-type “temporary” dump in Nevada.
The bill would trigger the largest nuclear waste shipping campaign in history, affecting 43 states. Representatives Ensign and Gibbons, both Nevada Republicans, challenge the idea that the site is temporary but point out that if it is temporary, the transportation hazards are not warranted. HR 1270 also exempts the nuclear waste program from most environmental laws, which was the basis for many members’ opposition to the bill today.
In a radical departure from business as usual, Republican Committee Chair Don Young of Alaska, ranking Democrat George Miller of California, and Ed Markey of Massachusetts–an outspoken HR 1270 opponent–joined forces to amend the bill and then vote it down.
The action will not prevent the bill from going to the House floor, as the bill earlier was approved by the House Commerce Committee, but it does send a strong message to the full spectrum of House members that there is no consensus on this bill. The Clinton administration continues its vow to veto the measure. A floor vote is expected before the November recess.
National environmental organizations and communities nationwide have a consensus that HR 1270 presents a clear and present danger. New deadlines in the bill would force the transportation of deadly waste on a schedule that does not allow for preparation or development of the barest minimum of readiness at the local level. The shipping campaign would extend for 30 years or more, affecting hundreds of communities en route to Yucca Mountain, on Western Shoshone lands in Nevada. The Shoshone Nation opposes the dump which would violate an existing U.S. treaty.
“It is encouraging that a Committee of Congress opposes this legislation. If HR 1270 were implemented, the waste from an estimated 31 nuclear power reactors and the Savannah River nuclear weapons facility would pass through St. Louis. That could mean at least one cask of nuclear waste passing through St. Louis every 8 hours for the next 28 years!” Said Kay Drey of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.
Drey added: “The Three Mile Island waste came through this community and there were a number of incidents in those relatively few shipments. Moving these wastes from one place to another is not a solution, and certainly not a safe solution. It increases the risks for residents in 43 states.”
“The Resources Committee has served the interests of 50 million people who live within a half-mile of the projected nuclear waste transportation routes, and we applaud their work,” said Mary Olson of Nuclear Information and Resource Service. “We work with communities nationwide affected by nuclear reactors and nuclear waste sites who oppose this legislation because it is bad public policy, and takes us farther away from a real answer for the nuclear waste problem. The Mobile Chernobyl bill just increases the number of people who will be affected, without giving us a real solution.”
The Resources Committee made a number of amendments to HR 1270. It is not clear that these changes will make it to the House Floor since the House Rules Committee–the last hurdle before floor action– has jurisdiction to choose between today’s Resources Committee version and the earlier Commerce Committee version which is more favorable to the nuclear industry.
Resources Committee amendments included two offered by Republicans Ensign and Gibbons that address concerns promoted by the Republican majority in the 105th Congress. Dimensions of State authority were preserved by asserting that the Clean Water Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act and Federal Land Management Act would apply to the program; all are laws which rely on functions of State oversight.
HR 1270 has some of the most sweeping preemption language seen in proposed legislation, giving the Secretary of Energy even more authority than the War Powers Act provides the President.
Government “taking” of private property was addressed in an amendment that would require compensation or purchase of property which suffered loss of value due to any aspect of implementation of the law. This is highly significant in the light of precedent already set in New Mexico where a property owner was compensated for loss of land value along a nuclear waste route to the WIPP facility. There are tens of thousands of route miles to Yucca Mountain.
“It tells us something when the far right and the environmental community agree on something. The local authority issues and the value of our homes and communities should be the first concern for Congress. A Mobile Chernobyl is easier to stop on The Hill, but I have no doubt it will stop even if Congress tries to implement this,” commented Dave Kraft of Nuclear Energy Information Service.
Kraft continued, “More than 6,000 shipments are projected to come through Metropolitan Chicago–most of it from out of state. When it comes to nuclear waste transportation, we all live in Nevada. It is refreshing that the Resources Committee took a stand with us in opposing HR 1270.”