Date: 1995-01-23
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. owned. as I first mentioned? The point Chairman. the amendments that we are of order Standards place a new hurdle considering now would exclude regula- to pass on the safety regulations for tions on licensing. construction. and operations of nuclear reactors. and also nuclear power. on disposal of nuclear waste from the I am not antinuclear. I have been point of order procedure in this bill. We pronuclear. I think nuclear power have actually two amendments that plays a part in our energy policy. and deal with two sections of the bill. it should. but it should not be to the The NRC is a national agency. Very whim of local governments or even seldom do States get involved in some States. It should be a national issue of the regulation. However. Mr. Chair- and not something that we deal with man. many States. not only my State on 50 jurisdictions. or maybe hundreds of Texas but also New York. South of thousands of jurisdictions. based on Carolina.. and a great many other our locality. States. have nuclear powerplants that Mr. Chairman. this bill had no public are often either locally owned. State- hearings on it. The only person we owned. or in our case in Texas. are ac- could hear from was the sponsor of the tually cooperatively owned by private bill. the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. business. ratepayer companies. PORTMAN]. who is very knowledgeable Mr. Chairman. the issue at hand is on unfunded mandates. but we could whether we should have national regu- not ask any questions on how it aflation of nuclear reactors and nuclear fected nuclear power or nuclear waste waste disposal. or whether it should be disposal. because we needed to have a exempted from the unfunded mandate hearing to discuss it so we can find out. issue. The Nuclear Regulatory Coin- We did not have that. That is why we mission is a national agency. in fact. have to run with not only this amendan independent agency. ment but a number of amendments The problem where it comes in is here on the floor. that in south Texas and in other States Mr. Chairman. we need to learn the we have cooperative nuclear power impact of how this is happening. That plants that are owned by investor- is why we are having not only this owned companies. but also by local mu- amendment but other amendments. to nicipalities. The issue that it brings up develop a legislative history so somein this bill is what happens if we have. body down the line can say "This- is as in our case in south Texas. the man- what the intent of Congress on unaging partner who is an independent funded mandates was." company. investorowned utility. but I mentioned earlier today an edithe owners of it or partial owners of it torial in the Houston Post. and again. are municipalities who provide elec- for those who were not here earlier. it tricity to their citizens. in different is not the Washington Post. it is an parts of the State. How do we differen- outsidethebeltway paper. that Repubtiate? licans and many Democrats support The concern I have. and that is why the unfunded mandate bill. but we also this is an amendment to section 4 of realize it is not a panacea. and we need the bill. would exempt out that. Very to realize what we are doing with this. seldom do we have State regulation of The CHAIRMAN. The time of the nuclear facilities. although we have an -gentleman from Texas [Mr. GENE example of a bill now that has been in- GREEN] has expired.