Radioactive waste storage bill derailed in the Texas House on a technicality
AUSTIN — Contentious legislation that would have given financial breaks to the company that operates the storage site for low-level radioactive waste in remote West Texas was derailed Wednesday on a procedural technicality in the state House.
The maneuver to knock down House Bill 2692 short-circuited what had been expected to be a freewheeling floor debate over whether the bill would have provided a backdoor to bringing the most dangerous waste from decommissioned nuclear power plants to Texas.
The legislation's author, state Rep. Brooks Landgraf, a Republican who represents the site in Andrews County, insisted it would expressly ban such waste from Texas. And he said he was "mystified" that anyone would interpret it otherwise.
"We want to make sure safety is a top priority ... not only at the facility but (while waste is) transported to the facility," Landgraf said before the bill was scuttled.
Read more: https://www.caller.com/story/news/local/texas/state-bureau/2021/05/05/bill-cut-fees-texas-radioactive-waste-dump-operator-derailed/4921796001/
(Corpus Christi Caller-Times)
