Why Did Bernie Sanders Sponsor a Bill to Dump Nuclear Waste On a Low-Income Latino Community? [View all]

[NCTraveler]

There were many fine moments from Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton during Thursday’s debate. One of the most important, in my opinion, was when Bernie said the reaction to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, would be different if it had occurred in a white suburb. He also said he suspected Hillary agreed with him. Indeed, Hillary has taken the lead on drawing attention to the Flint water crisis.

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Take, for example, the bill he co-sponsored and ushered through Congress to allow Vermont and Maine to dump low-level nuclear waste at a site in Sierra Blanca, Texas. Sierra Blanca is home to a large Latino population with an average income of $8,000. Last year, Politifact called the assertion that Bernie “cosponsored the bill and actively ushered it through Congress” largely accurate.

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According to the Texas Observer, when activists confronted Bernie about sponsoring the bill, he reportedly told them: “My position is unchanged, and you’re not gonna like it.” When asked if he would visit the site in Sierra Blanca, he said, “Absolutely not. I’m gonna be running for re-election in the state of Vermont.”

Bernie claimed to be supporting the bill because the Texas site was supposedly a safer place to dump such waste than Vermont or Maine, but it’s hard to separate the demographics of this poor Latino community from the issue.

http://bluenationreview.com/bernie-pushed-to-dump-nuclear-waste-on-low-income-community/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-o-meara-sanders-a4a6741b