Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumBernie Sanders' Nuclear Waste Votes Divide Texas Activists
Tweet:
Ian Sams
?@IanSams
Revealing @TexasTribune read on Sanders support for sending nuclear waste to a small, poor, mostly Latino Texas town http://www.texastribune.org/2016/02/28/Sanders-Nuclear-Waste-Votes-Divide-Texas-Activists/
The Texas Tribune
Bernie Sanders' Nuclear Waste Votes Divide Texas Activists
http://www.texastribune.org/2016/02/28/Sanders-Nuclear-Waste-Votes-Divide-Texas-Activists/
by Jamie Lovegrove Feb. 28, 2016
Enlarge
Photo by Laura Buckman / David Bowser
In the late 1990s, when now-U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont was a member of the House, he supported a compact between Maine, Vermont and Texas that originally proposed dumping low-level radioactive waste in a small minority community in far-West Texas, putting him at odds with other progressive congressmen.
Though the waste never made it to Sierra Blanca, a low-income, largely Hispanic town in Hudspeth County, Sanders efforts have attracted renewed attention online in the leadup to Tuesday's Texas primary. Critics suggest that the candidates role in promoting the compact which ultimately brought the waste to a different site in West Texas undermines his otherwise progressive record.
It reflects very poorly on him, said longtime environmental justice activist Dr. Robert Bullard, dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University and the author of Dumping on Dixie. Shoving this down peoples throats is not progressive politics. It was business as usual. Its a classic case of rich people from a white state shifting something they dont want to a poor minority community somewhere else.
But other activists in the area have forgiven Sanders for his role in the proposal. Bill Addington lives in Sierra Blanca and was a leading activist against the nuclear waste compact, creating a legal defense fund and even travelling to Vermont to directly protest Sanders. But now Addington says he is supporting Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary.
Bernie made a big mistake, but this country has a lot bigger problems than what happened 20 years ago, Addington said. Not that that gives him a free pass, not that it makes him right, but weve moved on..........................
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
2 replies, 918 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (2)
ReplyReply to this post
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Bernie Sanders' Nuclear Waste Votes Divide Texas Activists (Original Post)
riversedge
Feb 2016
OP
Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)1. This is another of his questionable votes.
It may have made sense for Vermont to send nuclear waste off to Texas. That kind of decision was bad for the country as a whole, and horrendous for Texas.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)2. Like on gun control, I guess he was "serving his constituents" (nt)