Joe Baca: “first of all I want to recognize the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell) for his efforts and the gentlewoman from…”

“first of all I want to recognize the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell) for his efforts and the gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Berkley) for fighting very hard on an important issue that is impacting not only their districts but the districts throughout the Nation. I commend them for their effort in bringing this awareness to a lot of us. All of us care about legislation. We care about good legislation. This is not good legislation. It should not be done just for the sake of creating legislation and having a nuclear waste dump in Yucca Mountain. It should be legislation that is positive, legislation that has taken in every safeguard. It should have allowed the input. It did not allow the input. We have many people that are going to be affected. This is a bad bill, especially for my district and Members from Southern California. This bill does not accurately address the serious issues of highly radioactive nuclear waste being shipped to Nevada. Currently it is estimated that transportation of spent fuel to Yucca Mountain will involve over 100,000 shipments by trucks and trains. Can we imagine 100,000 shipment of roads and highways and rails through at least 43 States over the next 30 years? Can we imagine if there was a derailment in the area? I know that in California not too long ago we had a derailment in that immediate area with an explosion that affected many individuals.”