For years, Sen. Harry Reid and other anti-Yucca mountain Chicken Littles have told us that there’s never been any offer of any substantial benefits – similar to the dough Alaskans get for hosting the Alaska oil pipeline – in exchange for hosting the nation’s nuclear waste repository.
That claim is simply not true, as an actual Senate bill outlining VERY specific potential benefits was drafted a few years ago which ultimately was deep-sixed by Reid. But that doesn’t mean the offer wasn’t on the table.
And now the “no benefits” fiction is even less true.
Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) noted on Wednesday that it would cost taxpayers an estimated $5.6 billion to search for a new site and suggested that money might be better spent giving it to Nevada if Nevada would drop its opposition to Yucca.
$5.6 BILLION? Man, that’d buy a busload of school textbooks, wouldn’t it?!!!
And that’s just the opening bid.
Shimkus also said he was “tired” of claims that everyone in Nevada is opposed to Yucca Mountain…which also isn’t true and never has been.
“There is a strong group of Nevadans who want this (project),” the congressman said. “Hence going back to this $5.6 billion we would put on the table to help convince maybe the others.”
So the next time you hear some liberal say that “everything has to be on the table,” including tax hikes, ask him or her if “everything” includes Yucca Mountain. ‘Cause if Yucca’s not on the table, then tax hikes shouldn’t be either.
