http://www.earthisland.org/news/new_news.cfm?newsID=657White House Asks Congress to Overturn Court
Decision on Yucca Mountain!
Contact your Senators now!
Submitted by Nuclear Information and Resource Service
November 16, 2004
Congressional Quarterly is reporting today that the White House is asking the
lame duck Congress to overturn last summer's federal court decision that threw
out the Environmental Protection Agency's 10,000-year radiation protection
standard for the proposed Yucca Mountain high-level radioactive waste dump.
The court ruled that Congress had required EPA to abide by the
recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences, which has stated that
the highest radiation doses from Yucca could come in the hundreds of
thousands of years.
<snip>
This is absolutely inappropriate. There have been no hearings on this issue.
The Senate (and House) have not examined this issue. Further, the court
decision was correct, and should not be overturned. This is yet another
transparent effort to put politics above science (which candidate Bush in 2000
said he wouldn't do!) and license Yucca Mountain at any cost to Nevada and
the environment generally.
There is not much time to act, but your actions right now will make a huge
difference. Congress does have to pass the Energy appropriations measure,
but it also wants to go home. If we can flood the Congress with phone calls
this week, Congress will decide this is just too much to handle right now. So,
please, call your Senators and Representatives right now (Capitol
Switchboard, 202-224-3121).