Opinion ID: 786772
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: DOE Criteria, Secretary's Alleged Failure to Take Mandatory Actions, and Site Recommendations

Text: 208 Nevada's challenges to DOE's site-suitability criteria, the Secretary's recommendation, the FEIS, and the President's recommendation are all directed to the fundamental question of whether the Yucca site was properly selected for development as a repository. Congress's enactment of the Resolution, however, has rendered that question moot. The Resolution affirmatively and finally approved the Yucca site for a repository, thus bringing the site-selection process to a conclusion. No determination as to the soundness of the administrative and executive actions leading up to the Resolution's enactment would undo the Resolution's binding effects. It has long been settled that a federal court has no authority `to give opinions upon moot questions or abstract propositions, or to declare principles or rules of law which cannot affect the matter in issue in the case before it.' Church of Scientology v. United States, 506 U.S. 9, 12, 113 S.Ct. 447, 449-50, 121 L.Ed.2d 313 (1992) (quoting Mills v. Green, 159 U.S. 651, 653, 16 S.Ct. 132, 133, 40 L.Ed. 293 (1895)). Where Congress enacts intervening legislation that definitively resolves the issues a litigant seeks to put before us, the claims are moot and we are precluded from deciding them. See Cook Inlet Treaty Tribes v. Shalala, 166 F.3d 986, 990 (9th Cir.1999); Mobil Oil Corp. v. EPA, 35 F.3d 579, 585 (D.C.Cir.1994); State of Nevada v. Watkins, 943 F.2d 1080, 1083-84 (9th Cir.1991); Bunker Ltd. P'ship v. United States, 820 F.2d 308, 311 (9th Cir.1987). 209 There is no question that the Resolution is a law, enacted in accordance with the bicameralism and presentment requirements of Article I, section 7, clause 3 of the Constitution. See Bowsher v. Synar, 478 U.S. 714, 756, 106 S.Ct. 3181, 3203, 92 L.Ed.2d 583 (1986) (Stevens, J., concurring in judgment) (The joint resolution, which is used for `special purposes and ... incidental matters,' makes binding policy and `requires an affirmative vote by both Houses and submission to the President for approval' — the full Article I requirements. (citations omitted)); Consumer Energy Council of Am. v. FERC, 673 F.2d 425, 459 n. 140 (D.C.Cir.1982) (stating that joint resolutions become law upon presentment to and approval by the President). 210 As with any other statute, our interpretation of the Resolution begins with its text and the presumption that Congress says in a statute what it means and means in a statute what it says there. Conn. Nat'l Bank v. Germain, 503 U.S. 249, 254, 112 S.Ct. 1146, 1149-50, 117 L.Ed.2d 391 (1992); see also Ann Arbor R.R. Co. v. United States, 281 U.S. 658, 666, 50 S.Ct. 444, 445-46, 74 L.Ed. 1098 (1930) (stating that a joint resolution is construed according to general rules of statutory construction). Congress, in enacting the Resolution, spoke in concise and unambiguous language: [T]here hereby is approved the site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, for a repository, with respect to which a notice of disapproval was submitted by the Governor of the State of Nevada on April 8, 2002. 116 Stat. 735 (2002), 42 U.S.C. § 10135 note. The Resolution's meaning is clear on its face: It overrides Nevada's notice of disapproval and affirmatively approves the Yucca site for the development of a repository. The practical effect of the legislation is to conclude the site-selection process and to permit DOE to seek authorization from NRC to construct and operate a repository at this site. 211 The legislative history of the Resolution confirms this interpretation. The Senate Committee Report on the Resolution states that [t]he purpose of [the Resolution] is to approve the site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada for the development of a repository for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel, pursuant to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. S.REP. No. 107-159, at 1 (2002). The House Committee Report contains virtually identical language. H.R. REP. No. 107-425, at 2 (2002). Both Reports state that the effect of the Resolution's enactment will be to allow DOE to go forward with its application for authorization from NRC to build and operate the repository. See S. REP. No. 107-159, at 1 (2002); H.R. REP. No. 107-425, at 7 (2002) (Congressional Budget Office Estimate). 212 The floor debate on the Resolution likewise confirms that the members of Congress intended the Resolution to approve the Yucca site, conclude the site-selection process, and permit DOE to proceed to seek a license for the repository. See generally 148 CONG. REC. H2180-H2205 (daily ed. May 8, 2002); 148 CONG. REC. S6444-S6491 (daily ed. July 9, 2002). As Senator Murkowski, one of the Senate sponsors of the Resolution, declared, The resolution ... reaffirms the present recommendation of Yucca Mountain as a suitable site for this Nation's permanent geologic repository ... [and] gives the Department of Energy the go ahead to begin the licensing process with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.... 148 CONG. REC. S5886 (daily ed. June 21, 2002). Representative Shimkus, one of the House sponsors, similarly stated that [t]he vote that Congress will be taking today says that after 20 years of exhaustive scientific analysis the government is ready to designate Yucca Mountain ... a safe site and move to the licensing phase for the development of an underground disposal facility. 148 CONG. REC. H2185 (daily ed. May 8, 2002). 213 There is good reason, moreover, to conclude that both Nevada and the Members of Congress understood that enactment of the Resolution would render moot most of the claims raised in this suit. Nevada, in its statement of the reasons for its notice of disapproval, notified Congress of its pending law suits challenging the legal soundness of both the Secretary's and the President's Yucca Mountain site recommendations. Statement of Reasons Supporting the Governor of Nevada's Notice of Disapproval of the Proposed Yucca Mountain Project 5-6 (Apr. 8, 2002), reprinted in Add. of Leg. Materials at 10-11. Nevada asserted the central claim in the case now before us: that DOE changed its site-suitability criteria because Yucca could not meet the preexisting criteria. Id. Nevada urged Congress to delay approval of the repository until its legal claims were decided by the courts and stated that direct legislative approval of the Yucca site would mean that DOE's bogus site suitability determination could never be reviewed on the technical merits. Id. 214 The Senate Committee Report considered and rejected Nevada's objections to approval of the Yucca site, including the legal argument against the site-suitability criteria. S. REP. No. 107-159, at 6-13 (2002). The authors of the Report reviewed the Administration's case for selecting the Yucca site and concluded that the Secretary's recommendation and the supporting documents and testimony me[t] the burden of going forward imposed by the [NWPA]. Id. at 13. Nevada's arguments, the Committee declared, did not  outweigh the national interest in proceeding with the repository program. Id. at 14. Despite Nevada's public prediction that approval of the Yucca site would render its site-selection-related claims unreviewable, Congress ultimately enacted the Resolution. 215 In summary, everything in the text and legislative history of the Resolution confirms that Congress intended affirmatively to approve the Yucca site, thus concluding the site-selection process and permitting DOE to seek authorization from NRC to build and operate a repository at the site. In the absence of any constitutional defect in the Resolution, we have no authority to review the substantive basis for this decision. Once the meaning of an enactment is discerned and its constitutionality determined, the judicial process comes to an end. We do not sit as a committee of review, nor are we vested with the power of veto. Tenn. Valley Auth. v. Hill, 437 U.S. 153, 194-95, 98 S.Ct. 2279, 2301-02, 57 L.Ed.2d 117 (1978). The Resolution's meaning is clear, and we have already rejected Nevada's sole constitutional challenge. There consequently remains nothing left for us to decide. No pronouncement from this court as to the legal soundness of the administrative and executive decisions preceding the enactment of the Resolution could provide Nevada with any effective relief. The Resolution is the law, the Yucca site has been finally approved, and DOE has been authorized to seek permission from NRC to construct and operate the repository. 216 Nevada concedes that its claims are moot to the extent that the Resolution affirmatively approved the Yucca site for development. Nevada argues, however, that the Resolution is merely a legislative veto that cancels Nevada's notice of disapproval and restores the status quo ante. This narrow construction is untenable and must be rejected. The Resolution's text and legislative history make inescapably clear that it not only canceled Nevada's notice of disapproval but also affirmatively approved the Yucca site. Nevada's arguments to the contrary are unpersuasive. 217 First, the fact that the Resolution approves the Yucca site  with respect to which a notice of disapproval was submitted  cannot plausibly be read to limit the effect of the approval. Rather, this secondary clause merely makes clear that Congress intended its affirmative approval to override Nevada's notice of disapproval. Nevada's narrow focus on this language, by contrast, would render meaningless the Resolution's primary clause: There hereby is approved the site at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, for a repository. 218 Contrary to Nevada's assertions, our interpretation of the Resolution is entirely consistent with NWPA section 114(b). That provision states that DOE shall submit a license application to NRC if the President's site designation is permitted to take effect under section [115]. 42 U.S.C. § 10134(b). The President's site designation may be permitted to take effect under section 115 in one of two ways: without any further action if Nevada does not submit a timely notice of disapproval, or, if Nevada does submit such a notice, through enactment of a joint resolution meeting the requirements of section 115. See 42 U.S.C. § 10135(b), (c). Nevada submitted a notice of disapproval. Under this scenario, the President's original site designation was nevertheless permitted to take effect precisely because Congress enacted a law affirmatively adopting that designation. 219 We find no merit in Nevada's contention that our interpretation of the Resolution somehow renders the NWPA's judicial review provision meaningless. Section 119 of the NWPA gives the U.S. courts of appeals exclusive jurisdiction over, inter alia, any civil action for review of any final decision or action of the Secretary [of Energy], the President, or the [Nuclear Regulatory] Commission under this part. 42 U.S.C. § 10139(a)(1). It is elementary that this provision does not supercede Article III of the Constitution, which requires that a case or controversy remain live in order for this or any other court to have jurisdiction. See Church of Scientology, 506 U.S. at 12, 113 S.Ct. at 449-50 ([A] federal court has no authority `to give opinions upon moot questions....'). Section 119 contemplates the possibility of actions challenging decisions of the Secretary and the President. But it does not follow that the section is rendered meaningless when, as a result of intervening legislation, a particular action challenging a particular decision becomes moot and therefore unreviewable. It should be noted, moreover, that section 119 continues to govern other suits challenging actions taken under the relevant portion of the NWPA. Nevada's constitutional challenge to the Resolution, addressed on the merits above, was brought pursuant to section 119(a)(1). And section 119 presumably will govern future actions including, for example, any petitions for review of DOE's final decision selecting an alternative for transporting waste to Yucca Mountain and NRC decisions relating to construction authorization or licensing. 220 Finally, we reject Nevada's contention that the Resolution's meaning or effect is cabined by the fact that it was enacted pursuant to accelerated legislative procedures. We repeat: The Resolution is a law, validly enacted under Article I, section 7 of the Constitution, and its meaning is to be interpreted according to standard tools of statutory interpretation, beginning with its text. That the Resolution was enacted pursuant to the special procedures set forth in the NWPA has no particular bearing on our interpretation of its content.