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Witness Testimony
The Honorable Jim Gibbons
A Review of the Department of Energy's Yucca Mountain Project, and Proposed Legislation to Alter the Nuclear Waste Trust Fund (H.R. 3429 and H.R. 3981).
Mr. Chairman, thank you for inviting me to testify at this important hearing today. This issue has always been of the utmost concern to me and to many of my constituents. I represent every county in Nevada, including Nye County which includes Yucca Mountain. In fact, the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, and the ongoing fight against it, is absolutely the number one grievance Nevadans have with the federal government. Despite my sincere appreciation for being invited to present my side of the Yucca Mountain case here today, I must make it very clear from the outset that my views on this proposed repository contrast quite severely with those of the majority of the Members of this Committee. However, as long as the voters in Nevada elect me to public office, I will continue to fight to prevent the Yucca Mountain repository from ever becoming our nation's nuclear waste storage dump. My reasons for opposing the Yucca Mountain waste repository are manifold, ranging from an urgent need to protect the health and safety of all Americans, to serious concerns regarding possible terrorist sabotage of the waste shipments, to fiscal concerns with continuing to burden the hardworking taxpayers of this nation with the ever-rising costs of this Department of Energy boondoggle. At issue before the Subcommittee today are two topics: progress on the Yucca Mountain Project overall, and legislation aiming to dramatically alter the Nuclear Waste Trust Fund and take the Yucca Mountain project off-budget completely. Regarding progress on the proposed nuclear waste repository overall, I hold the firm belief that forward progress on this project is impossible. With every week that goes by and with every dollar spent in an attempt to make the Yucca Mountain waste repository feasible, additional flaws that should render the project unsuitable for licensing are exposed. The scientific, public safety, health, and environmental concerns surrounding the proposed waste repository are well-documented and I will not spend my time here today reiterating them to the Subcommittee. I am assured that you are all well aware of these issues and I would entreat you to take these concerns as seriously as do the Nevadans who will most likely affect be affected by this misguided policy. However, I would like to take this opportunity to address a fairly immediate concern, one that is gaining more attention as the DOE works towards licensing the repository. While the DOE continues to spend millions upon millions of dollars on the Yucca Mountain project - we have yet to begin to address the dangers the transportation of high-level nuclear waste poses to our national security and our citizens' health and safety. The issue of transporting 77,000 metric tons of high level nuclear waste through thousands of American neighborhoods, across our nation's rugged terrain, and through our busy city scapes, past schools and hospitals, out to Yucca Mountain has raised the ire of Americans all across the country. Truthfully, I have seen no evidence to prove that the deadliest material known to man can be safely and securely transported across the nation to Yucca Mountain. Just one accident could result in the loss of thousands of lives and unimaginable devastation to communities and the environment. And yet, even more worrisome than an accident is a malicious terrorist act to derail a shipment or worse - sabotage these shipments with an explosive device in order to create a dirty bomb. This is an issue for all Americans nation-wide and it is up to Congress to oversee and scrutinize the Department of Energy's work in this which is, in my opinion, a flawed and potentially tragic scheme. The second issue at hand before the Subcommittee today is consideration of two bills designed to alter the Nuclear Waste Trust Fund, H.R. 3429, and H.R. 3981. As I have stated before, I strongly oppose any language that would eliminate Congressional oversight of the annual Yucca Mountain funding process, and both of these bills would have that effect. H.R. 3981 and H.R. 3481 would both allow utility company contributions to be credited to the Nuclear Waste Fund as offsetting collections, thus severely limiting Congress' ability to oversee and manage how DOE spends these funds annually. As my above statement outlines, I have serious concerns with the DOE's management of the Yucca Mountain Project, and annual Congressional oversight of the funding appropriated for this project is key in executing our duty of ensuring that every cent of American taxpayers' dollars is spent responsibly and efficiently. Certainly, the unanswered scientific questions, public safety and health concerns, and unresolved issue of how the nuclear waste will be shipped across country to Yucca Mountain warrant further examination before Congress allows our oversight of this proposed repository to be rescinded. At a time when Congress should be tightening its spending belt whenever and wherever possible, it would be ill-considered for us to allow funding to increase at an astronomical rate for a project that may very well be proven unfeasible before it is even licensed. While I understand that Chairman Barton of the full Energy and Commerce Committee is the lead sponsor on H.R. 3981, I strongly encourage this Subcommittee not to move forward on these legislative proposals. In conclusion, Congress must work to identify an alternative to the Yucca Mountain plan. The idea of burying one of the most toxic substances known to man underground and isolating it for ten thousand years was devised nearly 20 years ago. Over the past two decades, scientific advances have demonstrated that the geologic burial of nuclear waste is just that: a waste. Congress cannot provide for the squandering of our nation's limited resources on a project that has been proven over and over again to be a disaster both scientifically and fiscally. Congress should not and can not abdicate its oversight responsibility of a billion dollar project. Such a decision would be a disservice to every taxpayer in America. With that, I once again register my opposition to continuing along the disastrous path of burying our nation's nuclear waste in my Congressional District. I offer my strongest support for working together towards an alternative solution to the geologic burial of high-level nuclear waste, and propose that Congress maintain its Constitutional authority over spending and the use of taxpayer dollars. Related Documents |
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