Angie Craig: “I do not oftentimes do this, but I think it is time to speak to the citizens of Minnesota, because their Senator has…”

“I do not oftentimes do this, but I think it is time to speak to the citizens of Minnesota, because their Senator has produced an amendment that in my opinion reverses a longstanding Government policy. This amendment purports to release the Government from its obligation to take the waste. The Senator from Minnesota calls this a taxpayers' protection amendment. What he does not tell us is that it would nail the ratepayer, the ratepayers of his State. For instance, it would force the people of Minnesota who have already paid over $229 million into the waste fund to pay millions more to build more storage sites at their reactors. Minnesotans have already paid twice. I believe the Wellstone amendment, if the courts upheld it, would force Minnesotans, who get 31 percent of their electricity from nuclear power, to pay again and again and again. Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that DOE has an obligation, and that has been thoroughly debated by the Senator from Minnesota and the Senator from Louisiana. It is very clear what the court said. The obligation exists.”