Gov. Abbott joined Texas’ petition urging the Fifth Circuit to vacate a federal license that would bring the radioactive waste to Texas.
MIDLAND, Texas — The debate over storing high-level radioactive waste in West Texas got turned up another notch. There is a federal license for storing that waste, but there is an entire community and a state government that oppose it.
Gov. Greg Abbott has doubled down on his stance on the matter. Abbott joined Texas’ petition urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to vacate a federal license that would bring high-level nuclear waste to Texas.
The question still remains about whether it matters or not. However, having the governor of Texas on the case could help if you ask the people who have been in on this fight for the last few years.
“Hey, he speaks for all the people of Texas, and that’s a huge pulpit to stand on, and I think that’s very, very important to do that,” Tommy Taylor, assistant general manager at Fasken Oil and Ranch said. “So we’ve been engaged, our coalition in Fasken has been engaged in this process since day one, and we brought up all these contentions.”
Abbott has even said that Texas will not be the country’s dumping ground. Texas representative Brooks Landgraf calls this a tremendous victory.
“He is very supportive as we know, but that is a tool in the toolbox for the state of Texas to push back against the Biden administration’s plan to put high-level radioactive waste in Andrews County,” Landgraf said. “So for the governor to weigh in on this citing HB 7, I think it’s a tremendous victory for us here in the Permian Basin.”
Sights are set on a victory inside the Fifth Circuit level, and if it gets there, the Supreme Court.
“I think that we have a very good case to make because the health, safety, and welfare, those are decisions under the 10th Amendment that are left to the states decide,” Landgraf said. “There is not anything in the U.S. Constitution that grants authority to the federal government to give them the ability or authority to regulate high-level radioactive waste.”