Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I have great respect for Congressman Garamendi. I know how thoughtful he is, and normally I do support his efforts. I have to say that, in this instance, I think the priority has to be on completing construction of MOX. I think there was a reference made tonight that 67 percent of the construction is already completed. 90 percent of the equipment has been procured. 50 percent of the equipment is onsite. 1,800 people are directly employed. 4,000 American contractors and suppliers are being utilized in 43 States. And MOX is the only proven pathway we have for disposing of the 34 metric tons of U.S. weapons-grade plutonium in a pragmatic way. I have to say that one of my goals in supporting this effort--having worked now with the Department of Energy on a number of programs, my goodness, it seems never to be able to finish anything. So we talk about Yucca Mountain--the chairman of the subcommittee made significant reference to that--billions of dollars and a hole sits in the ground unused. Back when Jimmy Carter was President, he had a goal of putting solar panels on the Department of Energy. It didn't happen until recently. I mean, it has been three decades, four decades, before they could even finish something like that. {time} 2115 We look at Hanford and the cleanup that is necessary there. I mean, how many more centuries is it going to take?…”