Joe Barton: “But this site could withstand a 6.0 magnitude effort quake directly beneath it and sustain no damage; and, again, there…”

“But this site could withstand a 6.0 magnitude effort quake directly beneath it and sustain no damage; and, again, there was been no earthquake of this magnitude in the region in over 750,000 years. Let us talk about local support. My good friend (Mr. Bonilla) waved and alluded to a great list of Texas counties that oppose this site, and I have no doubt that that is a true list. In this county, the local elected officials that ran for reelection in the last local election supported the site and were reelected. Recently, in the office of American Statesmen there was an open letter asking that the site be approved signed by over 100 local residents, many of them elected officials. So I think that there is support for it in the region. Finally, Mr. Speaker, this bill passed the House 309 to 107 back in October. We need to pass this bill; we need to let Texas, Vermont and Maine go about their business; we need to let the State of Texas go ahead and address the concerns that have been raised by the administrative law judge.”