DOE cleanup to fund tax cut

["Tony Harrison" <laharris@SMTPGATE.DPHE.STATE.CO.US>]

I haven't seen this on Radsafe yet, but forward it for what it's worth.



Tony Harrison

Colorado Dept. of Public Health & Environment

tony.harrison@state.co.us 





Bush Advisor Urges Killing DOE Cleanup Program To Fund Tax Cut



A policy advisor to President Bush recommends that the administration

could

help pay for its $1.6 trillion tax cut by eliminating the Department

of

Energy's (DOE) nuclear waste cleanup program and redesignating the

contaminated sites as wildlife preserves.



A report by the advisor, titled From Waste to Wilderness: Maintaining

Biodiversity on Nuclear-Bomb-Building Sites, argues that the $6

billion

spent each year on DOE's cleanup program is a waste of money and only

represents a boon to local lawmakers in the form of jobs and

subsidies.

"The DOE nuclear-waste-management program is arguably the biggest

boondoggle in all of current pork-barrel spending  . The only losers

would

be government officials who administer the present cleanup program,

short-sighted politicians, and local communities that desire

pork-barrel

'nuclear welfare,'" the report says.



The report, to be released next month, is authored by Robert Nelson,

an

economist in the Interior Secretary's office from 1975 through 1993,

and a

member of Bush's environmental transition team. Nelson, a researcher at

the

Competitive Enterprise Institute, says his goal is to gain support for

his

plan amongst legislators and administration officials and have a

hearing on

his proposal.



The report is being released as DOE and administration officials face

increasing criticism from lawmakers and environmentalists over a

proposed

cut to the department's environmental cleanup budget. These advocates

argue

that even flat funding levels would be insufficient to allow numerous

waste

sites, including the Hanford, WA site to meet legally-binding closure

deadlines. Washington state officials are even preparing a lawsuit

against

DOE in anticipation of the agency falling behind schedule at Hanford.



Specifically, the report urges turning the five most-contaminated DOE

sites

--  Oak Ridge, TN, Savannah River, SC, Rocky Flats, CO, the Idaho

National

Environmental and Engineering Laboratory and Hanford --  into wildlife

refuges, because they are responsible for over 70 percent of cleanup

and

containment costs. "Paradoxically, the presence of radiation danger

and

national security concerns have meant that these very same places

offer

some of the finest and least disturbed plant and animal habitats in

the

United States," the report says.





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