The Texas legislature was scheduled to vote Tuesday on a proposed bill that would ban the storage of high-level nuclear waste in the Lone Star State as a waste management company seeks a federal license to do so.
H.B. 2692, introduced by state Rep, Brooks Landgraf (R), would also lower state fees associated with the storage and disposal of low-level waste in Texas. The measure is scheduled for a vote in a full session of the state’s House of Representatives Tuesday after passing in committee back in March.
The Senate-side version of the bill was scheduled for a floor vote last week, but that didn’t happen. At deadline Tuesday for Weapons Complex Morning Briefing the measure hadn’t been rescheduled in the state Senate.
Landgraf’s bill is up for a vote while Waste Control Specialists (WCS) seeks a federal license to build a consolidated interim storage site at its existing low-level waste disposal facility in Andrews County, Texas.
The bill has produced some controversy among Texans, including holdings company Fasken Oil & Ranch, Ltd. In testimony before a Texas House committee on March 24, Fasken said it would not support Landgraf’s legislation, essentially reversing the company’s earlier — if conditional — support for the measure.
“Today, I’m standing here in the hot box, changing my opinion on this bill from a previous discussion with Chairman [Landgraf], and I’m sure he’s not happy about it,” Taylor told the Texas House Environmental Regulation Committee March 24. Landgraf chairs the panel.
Taylor questioned the efficacy of a state ban on high-level waste given that WCS is on the verge of getting federal permission to dispose of it in Texas. He also raised concerns about how a future interim storage site could affect the fossil fuel industry and the safety of drilling operations.
At another committee hearing March 8, WCS president David Carlson said that his company would not build their proposed interim storage site without approval from the governor’s mansion. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is staunchly opposed to the site’s construction and went so far as to pen a letter to then-president Donald Trump, in September, asking the White House to step in.
Meanwhile, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is currently working on an environmental impact statement for the site. The environmental review, a gateway to a federal license, won’t be done until the summer, the agency has said.
