Dale Bumpers: “Mr. President, last July a D.C. circuit court ruled that the Waste Policy Act of 1982 required the Department of Energy…”

“Mr. President, last July a D.C. circuit court ruled that the Waste Policy Act of 1982 required the Department of Energy to take the utilities' nuclear waste in 1998. The utilities and the public service commissions brought two separate actions, and the court consolidated them. They argued that DOE was clearly under an obligation to take this waste in 1998. And the court ruled in their favor saying--this is good news for my adversaries on this amendment--``In conclusion, we hold that the petitioners' reading of the statute comports with the plain language of the measure. * * * Thus, we hold that section 302(a)(5)(B) creates an obligation in DOE, reciprocal to the utilities' obligation to pay, to start disposing of the [nuclear waste] no later than January 31, 1998.'' You may think that the utilities have all the best of it as a result of that decision, and they may very well have. But as you know, there is a case pending now in the D.C. Circuit in which the utility companies are seeking a judgment seeking to have the fees that they are paying put in escrow.”