Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I rise to support my good colleague, Congressman Keating, and his amendment dealing with spent nuclear fuel. We need a solution all across our country to spent nuclear fuel stored on dozens and dozens of sites across our country. We thought we had a solution. $14 billion has been invested in the Yucca Mountain facility, and yet because of opposition from those who were not consulted in Nevada before that site was constructed, our Nation has been at a standstill. So I want to compliment the gentleman from Massachusetts for bringing up this issue. Northern Ohio, a vast region that I and other Ohio Members represent, has more than one nuclear power plant that is faced with spent nuclear fuel onsite. We know that the Department of Energy is doing tremendous work in this arena, very fine work, but we simply can't continue to just keep talking about this. We actually have to begin to store fuel in a much safer way. This amendment would build on the work that DOE has been doing to continue to invest in such a critically important area as spent nuclear fuel and its permanent storage. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support the Keating amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.”