WHO gave Congressman Upton his marching orders to promote the Yucca dump?!
June 23, 2011
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U.S. Congressman Fred Upton (R-MI), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee A Heritage Foundation blog states that "[Congressman] Upton’s work on Yucca Mountain spans 20 years, dating to his first term in Congress while serving on the Energy and Commerce Committee. He was originally tasked with building bipartisan support for Yucca — support that he believes remains, despite the actions of the Obama administration to derail the project." (emphasis added) Indeed, Upton was the primary sponsor of the "Mobile Chernobyl" bills each session of Congress from 1995 to 2000, which would have opened the Yucca dump long before scientific studies had been completed. Upton's legislation was vetoed by President Clinton on the 14th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe (April 26, 2000); the U.S. Senate sustained Clinton's veto on May 2, 2000. Upton has continued to lead the promotion of the Yucca dump to the present day, as by his current witchhunt against NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko, who has decided to zero out the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's budget for Yucca licensing activities, given President Obama and Energy Secretary Chu's cancellation of the project in 2009-2010. But WHO gave Upton such marching orders to promote the Yucca dump in the first place? This is not made clear by the Heritage blogger. Was it lobbyists at the Nuclear Energy Institute? Or Upton's superiors in the House Republican Party of the mid-1980s? Beyond Nuclear has prepared a full length exposé on Upton's pro-nuclear advocacy in return for large nuclear industry contributions to his congressional election campaigns, as well as a concise summary. The exposé is fully documented by a compilation of both Political Action Committees and individual donors closely tied to the nuclear power industry.

Article originally appeared on Beyond Nuclear (https://archive.beyondnuclear.org/).
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