Washington, D.C. – America’s premier lobbying group in fighting government waste, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW), today announced its support for The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1999. The legislation would ensure that the Department of Energy (DOE) makes good on its commitment to take custody of and provide a permanent repository for the 77,000 tons of spent commercial nuclear fuel currently be stored at more than 70 nuclear power plants in dozens of states around the country.

The bill – introduced by Sens. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska), Larry Craig (R-Idaho), and Rod Grams (R-Minn.) – is virtually identical to its House counterpart (H.R. 45) and largely mirrors legislation which was introduced last year with bipartisan support and passed in both chambers. The 1999 Senate version differs in that it explicitly designates Yucca Mountain as the site for an interim storage facility and permits the DOE to access money in the Nuclear Waste Trust Fund to begin construction of both facilities simultaneously.

"The nation’s utilities are running out of storage space and the DOE has run out of excuses. It blew past its January 1998 deadline to begin moving the spent fuel, the courts have reaffirmed the department’s obligation to take custody of the spent fuel, and have established the federal government’s liability should the agency fail to deliver on its promise," said CCAGW President Tom Schatz. "The ratepayers, who also pay taxes, have done their part. The deadbeat here is the DOE. The Clinton administration is flirting with another S & L crisis which could end up costing taxpayers more than $56 billion. Enough is enough."

In congressional testimony recently, Secretary Richardson telegraphed his agency’s willingness to accept responsibility for fuel, but said that DOE would do this only in exchange for the states and utilities dropping their lawsuits. CCAGW, public utilities companies, dozens of states’ attorneys general, and the Minnesota-based Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition pointed out that the DOE’s own internal documents prohibit it from using the trust funds for anything other than permanent storage facility and blasted the proposal as a diversion and a sham.

CCAGW is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, a 600,000-member nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.

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