Pete Domenici: “So they are half wrong right up front in terms of their assessment. Furthermore, the bill itself says that if this…”

“So they are half wrong right up front in terms of their assessment. Furthermore, the bill itself says that if this section that is being debated is ever used, the Secretary will evaluate the creditworthiness of any new project under this program. So they are already wrong by half on the cost. Then I would ask, Does the Congressional Budget Office really believe the Secretary will approve a significant risk? If he approves a significant risk, he would be in violation--direct conflict--of the law that we are discussing that he would be acting on that the CBO assumes will cost this extraordinary amount and impose this extraordinary risk. I thank the Senator for his comments and his responses. I am quite sure the Congressional Budget Office, as this Senator knows--I have only worked with it for the sum total of 26 years on all kinds of issues--I believe there is no subject they are more wrong on than their estimates of the cost of matters nuclear. First of all, they assume that everything that has gone wrong in the past is going to go wrong again, while the world is out there proving that such is not the case, while we are saying only under very limited circumstances would you ever use these sections to begin with, which would eliminate part of their reasoning, which would just leave the scene and would not even be applicable as they attempt to make the risk estimate. I thank the Senator.”