Sat 12 May 2007
My favorite con that a member of Congress has is that of “introducing legislation.” They can introduce a bill that advocates anything. They can take credit for fighting to cure cancer, saving cute little puppies, or providing us with shelter from global warming on the moon. The cool thing is that they can take credit for all this knowing full well that their bills don’t have to actually accomplish anything or even a snowballs chance in hell of actually passing. (I’m a big fan of creating performance metrics for politicians and government agencies.)
The key tell of the con is the fact that the Representative is bragging about it in the press before the legislation has ever passed. Case in point:
Enquirer > Rep. Jean Schmidt introduces bill on nuke waste
If anyone has any doubts about Rep. Jean Schmidt’s plans for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, a bill she and two colleagues introduced on Friday should clear that up.
That bill – the Nuclear Waste Storage Prohibition Act – would ensure that no funds from the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) may be used for the creation of a permanent storage facility for spent nuclear fuel or high-level radioactive waste.
The complaint by Piketon community members has never been that they are planning to create a “permanent” nuclear storage facility in Piketon, but to instead to turn it into a “temporary” waste recycling and storage facility.
She knows this. This is a con. Congresswoman Schmidt has fought long and hard to bring nuclear waste to her district.
One does have to say that your humble editor is impressed that the Congresswoman has learned to use the power of any Representative to introduce any legislation even though they know that it will have no effect on anything and is just for show. Even better, she’s gotten Democratic Congressman Zack Space to join her in the con:
With such economic potential, it just makes sense to assure our Ohioans from the outset that this project will be a safe, secure facility – never anything like a Yucca Mountain-type nuclear-waste dump.
Well played, Congresswoman Schmidt.
The talk has never been about turning Piketon into a replacement for Yucca Mountain. The complaint has always been that they want to use Piketon as a “temporary” storage facility because they can’t find a permanent home for the junk. Since no one knows when a permanent home will be found the waste would be in Piketon for an unspecified amount of time… rusting away… just like it has been for decades on the existing cleanup site. Before they should ever consider bringing more nuclear waste to Piketon they should clean up the site that’s already contaminated.
Someone else had to come up with this because Scmidt just is not this smart. What is Zack Space thinking getting into bed with Schmidt (I chose that idiom on purpose). Zackmay get up with fleas. This is the second troublesome thing he’s done this week. Is it too much to ask that a Democrat act like a Democrat and stop playing into republican hands?
I can just imagine next week’s headline: “Rep Schmidt introduces bill to ban nuclear bombs from being dropped on the Second District.” Thanks Jean, you’re really progressive on the issues that count.
DISCLOSURE: I’m an unpaid supporter of Wulsin (do I have to disclose this kind of thing? Sorry, I’m new to blogging)
Jean,
Looks like you are looking to the East for a change… I am going to run against you in 2010 if a Democrat doesn’t win in 2008.
I suggest that you purchase a good pair of walking shoes. Then again, you probably can’t your way through the district without a map.
We need a Congressman who is in touch with the people who live in our district. It is time to take our country back and start bringing people together again.
When taken in total the GNEP proposal does have potential to be positive for Pike County. But I am sure you will forgive me if I have doubts about a program proposed by President Bush and hyped by Rep. Schmidt.
Here is the statement I made at the public hearing back on March 8th.
I didn’t come here tonight to endorse or condemn this plan. Since I don’t live here that may be overreaching. But I should say living down river and along the transportation corridor leading to Piketon gives me cause for concern. I did come to support the people who live and work here. And ask a few questions.
First let me say that this sounds great and I would really like to trust you….but.
I have to ask myself and now you, “Are your promises to the people of Pike County as hollow as the promises made to our veterans at Walter Reed? If, God forbid, something goes wrong, are your efforts going to be as feeble as FEMA’s efforts after hurricane Katrina?”
Just as the recently revealed treatment of our military veterans is unacceptable, it would be unacceptable to mistreat the workers and their families dependant on the continuing nuclear programs at the Ports. The people of this community are veterans of the Cold War. They have earned the opportunity to benefit from real programs that turn swords into plowshares.
The GNEP program, as proposed by President Bush, literally promises peace and prosperity. A goal I wholeheartedly support. I pray that you can deliver on his promise. Unfortunately the recent track record does not bode well for peace. And prosperity has yet to return to our part of Ohio.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Good luck, but remember good luck is no substitute for good planning.
Wow Jean is learning the art of FLIP FLOP…first she says the study would be a great thing for the Piketon area, bringing jobs and money to the area…and NOW she introduces a bill against the very thing the study is for!
Damn we need to get rid of her and fast.
Angry, it’s worse than that. First she said that there was no plan to store spent nuclear fuel at Piketon. If you recall, Vic was attacked on a series of websites for “making up” the accusation that SONIC wanted to create a high-level waste dump at Piketon.
AFTER the election, SONIC was forced to release its GNEP application, which stated clearly that it DID propose a spent nuclear fuel storage facility for Piketon. You can read this application at its putrid website, http://www.safesonic.net
DOE granted SONIC money to study that very idea. Moreover, SONIC was the only applicant in the country to propose a SNF storage dump (under the rubric of a “competition”, and the SONIC application was accompanied by TWO letters of support from our congressentity.
The study was made available a week ago and it includes no reference to SNF storage, the subject it was funded to study.
Then Schmidt announces legislation to ban the thing she supported but said did not exist as a proposal.
And the media trots right along.
To answer DG, Jean Schmidt did not come up with this. David Hobson came up with this. Hobson is the author of the legislative version of the Piketon waste dump plan.
The bill reflects a deal struck between Hobson and the Ohio Democrats. The deal is this — the Republicans would agree to remove the waste storage issue from the table temporarily, until after the 2008 election. This would, theoretically, allow the presidential candidates of both parties to campaign in Ohio in favor of GNEP as a jobs program, without being accused of being toxic dumpers.
The quid pro quo is that the Democrats will support a federal bailout package for USEC. USEC, you will recall, is the company at Piketon that purchesed a nuclear waste storage company in 2004. The USEC bailout package, authored by Voinocich, will substitute for a waste storage contract, allowing USEC to survive another two years.
After two years, all bets are off and this legislation will be meaningless. DOE will choose a GNEP site other than Piketon, causing jobs panic. USEC will then announce impending bankruptcy. In that desperate situation, Schmidt would agree to let USEC use its buildings for spent fuel storage, which is not prohibited by the bill as long as it is not funded through GNEP. The bill only decouples waste storage from GNEP.
Pretty slick huh?
Everyone should know that the Southern Ohio Neighbors Group will host a public forum on Piketon in Portsmouth on Tuesday night, May 15, from 6 pm to 9 pm. The location is Flohr Auditorium inside the library at Shawnee State University, on thye waterfront.
The forum is advertised widely, including the front page of today’s Portsmouth Daily Times. We hope to see you there.
PP, you’d make people’s lives a lot easier if you came up with some sources for this stuff.
Here is the Daily Times link:
http://www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/articles/2007/05/13/news/front_page/3news_songmeet.txt
Would it be possible to get an initiative on the ballot to ban the import of spent nuclear fuel into Ohio?
2 cents, we considered that. One problem is that as soon as we framed a ballot initiative, they would change their proposal at least linguistically as the new bill exemplifies. Another problem is that a stutute or constitutional amendment would be legally challenged because there is federal preemption on nuclear waste issues.
The answer is to get Vic ellected and then she will add some real teeth to the “Nuclear Waste Storage Prohibition Act.”
Editor, I know it bugs you, but sourcing everything in a public forum would be unwise. Some nasty people actually read this blog.
PP, you can source someone without naming them directly. A person inside the… documents provided to me by…
Last year the race was plagued by people making stuff up. People who don’t back things up come off looking just as bad.