Action alert from Karen Hadden, SEED Coalition, Austin, Texas:
Radioactive Waste Update:
Texas Senate
Everyone did a great job of testifying on HB7 at the Senate Natural Resources Committee hearing, and our testimony was well received.
We relayed support for a ban on high-level radioactive waste while pointing out the fact that the bill won't accomplish its purported goal.
Testimony was provided by Adrian Shelley, Lon Burnam, Cyrus Reed, Beki Halpin, Richard Halpin and me, Karen Hadden. Thanks and great job!
It was especially impressive considering we first heard about the Senate hearing at about 5 pm the night before, and it wasn't posted until 9 pm or so.
So we had less than 24 hours to prepare for a hearing regarding waste that can remain dangerous for over a million years.
Cyrus Reed is working with Sen. Birdwell who appears willing to do a good job of establishng legislative intent when HB 7 goes to the floor tomorrow.
HB 7 will likely pass without amendments on the Senate Floor tomorrow, in which case it will go to the Governor to be signed.
Texas House
The Calendars Committee voted this morning to send HB 200 to the floor for consideration tomorrow. Once again, the bill sounds good, but has a lot of problems.
It would be helpful if anyone can make calls or send emails to House members (maybe the the ones you contacted recently?)
The portion below can be cut and pasted onto emails to go to House Members: Thanks!! Karen Hadden, SEED Coalition, 512-797-8481
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Dear Rep. __________________
HB 200 is a bill regarding radioactive waste that is expected to be on the House Floor on Thursday. It requires TCEQ to designate Critical Energy Infrastructure Zones, based on energy generation, in which it would be illegal to store or dispose of high-level radioactive waste.
We encouraged Environmental Reg Committee members to vote NO on HB 200 because
1) We need a statewide ban, not counties fighting each other over who gets dumped on. About 50% of Texas counties would NOT be able to have high-level radioactive waste storage under this bill. Why not 100%?
2) the zones are not yet designated and could take a long time to establish (no timeline requirement)
3) TCEQ would be allowed to adjust the zones, moving them as they see fit - and this wiggle room could lead to siting problems
4) It has the same problems with definitions, which could make a difference in whether the bill has any real impact or not.
It's also dangerous to have any bill out there right now, since WCS could use it as a vehicle for a last minute amendment - like sticking their surcharge reductions on.
Those reductions are worth a lot of money to WCS, so I'm sure they haven't forgotten about it. They're known for last minute tricks...
AND PLEASE WATCH FOR ANY AMENDMENT INVOLVING HEALTH & SAFETY CODE 401 -
which could get tacked onto any bill! WCS is known for Radioactive Waste tricks!
Here's a reminder of what happened in 2019... Rep. Poncho Nevarez snuck an amendment onto a non-germane domestic violence bill
(SB 1804) on behalf of WCS - Waste Control Specialists. Nevarez later said that Rep. Brooks Landgraf had asked him to do it.
The sneaky amendment by Rep. Nevarez in 2019 looked innocuous... but wasn't:
SB 1804 ON THIRD READING (Neva´rez and Harless - House Sponsors)
SB 1804, A bill to be entitled An Act relating to the entry into the Texas Crime Information Center of certain information regarding conditions of bond imposed in criminal cases involving family violence.
Amendment No. 1 Representative Neva´rez offered the following amendment to SBi1804: Amend SBi1804 by adding the following appropriately numbered SECTIONS to the bill and renumbering subsequent SECTIONS of the bill accordingly:
SECTIONi____.iiNotwithstanding Section 1(b), Chapter 790 (HBi2662), Acts of the 85th Legislature, Regular Session, 2017, Section 401.207(g), Health and Safety Code, as amended by that Act, takes effect September 1, 2021.
SECTIONi____.iiNotwithstanding Section 3(b), Chapter 790 (HBi2662), Acts of the 85th Legislature, Regular Session, 2017, Section 401.2445, Health and Safety Code, as added by that Act, takes effect September 1, 2021. Amendment No. 1 was adopted. (Rodriguez recorded voting no.)
Texas Monthly wrote:
But the finale of the Poncho Nevárez Show made the rest of his routine look like side acts. In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it maneuver during the last week of session, he tacked a curious eleventh-hour amendment onto an uncontroversial bill that strengthened protections for domestic violence victims. Nevárez tried to gloss over the substance of the thing by calling it “some economic competitive incentives,” before quickly moving passage.
Whole fortunes have been made and lost in moments like that, when lawmakers pretend to be doing nothing interesting, and closer scrutiny bore that out here. Nevárez had used his own bill to try to turn a favor for politically influential company that operates a radioactive waste dump in West Texas—a dump that’s not even in his district. The “incentives” turned out to be a postponement of new fees, worth about $4 million to the company. The bill’s author, Senator Lois Kolkhorst, told the media she had been blindsided by Nevárez’s amendment, but accepted it in order to keep the bill alive. Not that it mattered—the governor vetoed it, calling out Nevárez for his shamelessness. Nevárez, true to form, suggested it was Abbott who didn’t care enough about domestic violence.
September 1, 2021