Political Quotes

“I assure my colleagues, Senator Bingaman, and the administration of our willingness to use the remaining time to try to be responsive to their concerns. I will summarize the situation. We have been at this a long time. We all agree we have an obligation as elected representatives to resolve this problem. The failure of the Government--certainly not under this Secretary of Energy--to take the waste in January of 1998 is what we are living with today. The ratepayers have paid $15 billion in electric rates on their bills with the assumption the Federal Government would take that waste; the damages and the claims go on and on and on as a consequence of time passing as that waste remains at the sites of our nuclear plants. The nearest estimate we have is $40 billion to $80 billion. The longer we wait, the greater the burden of the taxpayer. I think the public looks to Congress to address this with resolve. Some have suggested this administration simply does not want to resolve this matter on its watch. That may be the basic position of the administration. That may be justified in their minds. There is another group out there that sees the passage of this legislation to resolve what we will do with our nuclear waste as some kind of a significant benefit to the nuclear industry. If they can defeat this and bring the industry to its knees by causing it to choke on its own waste, nuclear power as we know in this country will die.”