Posted on 07/06/2010 9:48:21 AM PDT by Qbert
The Obama administration has suffered a defeat in its efforts to close the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
Three administrative judges within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled last week that President Barack Obama and Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu don't have the authority to close the controversial site unilaterally. That can only be accomplished, the judges said, by an act of Congress.
"Unless Congress directs otherwise, DOE may not single-handedly derail the legislated decision-making process by withdrawing the (Yucca repository) application. DOE's motion must therefore be denied," the judges wrote, adding that the DOE had weakened its arguments by "conceding that the application is not flawed nor the (Yucca) site unsafe."
"Given the stated purposes of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and the detailed structure of that legislation, it would be illogical to allow DOE to withdraw the application without any examination of the merits," the judges found.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
Good. I’m encouraged to see some pushback on this.
This will make Mr. Skittles mad. He will want to step on these Judge’s necks. Don’t mess with Mr. Skittles.
Classic government boondoggle.
Dig a huge hole in a wasteland then leave it empty after getting the lawyers in.
Keep paying govt workers to do nothing.
I’m very unimpressed with this Steven Chu guy, even though he won a Nobel Prize. He seems like an idiot Gore worshipper.
Just as the impeached former president did to the low-sulfur deposits (at Grand Staircase) for his financier James Riady.
Yeah, especially since we as taxpayers would’ve been on the hook for potentially 50 billion in legal fees related to closing the site:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2534704/posts
This leads me to believe that the EPA may lose if states take it to court emission control.
This seems to be what this administration looks like. An overstepping by the executive followed by restraint orders by judges.
Sparky is going to get very frustrated.
Wow, thanks for the link. This jerk(Obama) has got to go.Yucca Mountain would make a nice home for him. Or Gitmo.
IMHO, there should be a national referendum vote on making the Yucca Mountain Waste Site the permanent location of Obamassiah's TOTUS Library.
After it's built, THEN SEAL IT SHUT!!
In the interest of fairness, it should be pointed out that George W Bush exercised this authority for the largest land/water grabs in the history of land/water grabs. The national monument that was created in the northern HI islands, was done using this authority. It's massive, exponentially bigger than Yellowstone.
Good.
Interesting. They have spent $8 Billion and have collected $32 Billion. I am sure that unused $24 Billion is being held in escrow (not!)
You said it. When is the gubment going to stop treating nuclear waste as a jobs progam? Back in the early 80’s we had the Basalt Waste Isolation Project here at Hanford (simultaneously with Yucca Mtn) only to see that program ended after how many billions spent (because of the feared earthquake) and now we spent billions At Yucca Mtn and right before it is to open that door gets slammed shut.
I would like to see the appropriations bills to determine if Harry Reid voted for these before he got bought off by the enviromentalists to shut it down. And for that matter who in the Nevada delegation supported all of this and now say they don’t!
When are the building trade labor unions going to quit supporting in lock step the democrats who tout their big labor positions but in reality side with the enviromentalist to stop every project that would generate untold millions of jobs if we could actually build something these days.
My brother contracted with the DOE back in the early 90’s. He was the head of the Survey Dept. at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site.
He worked on the Yucca Mountain Project, and categorically states that the Yucca Mountain Repository is the best place we have studied, so far, in the U.S., to store the nuclear waste from our nuclear power plants.
The DOE looked at a myriad of choices to store our wastes, including Hanford, and White Sands.
This is a purely political stragem by the Eco-Fascists in our EPA, Whitehouse, and Earth-Firsters, Sierra Club, Barf-O-rama, Ad-Nauseum, to put us back in caves.
EXCELLENT . . . . . ANOTHER setback for the Kenyan!!!
He just keeps racking them up!
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“I’m very unimpressed with this Steven Chu guy, even though he won a Nobel Prize”
This latest ruling is proof-positive that having a Nobel Prize doesn’t guarantee you can make good administrative decisions. If he truly is a Gore worshiper, that alone would be grounds for stripping him of his Prize IMHO (I realize the Nobel Prize committee almost certainly doesn’t think this way).
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