Craddick Views Landgraf's Nuclear Waste Bill as Problematic
Representative Tom Craddick wrote a letter to the House Committee on Environmental Regulation members on March 21, 2021 in order to show his opposition to the current HB 2692. The bill, while mentioning the banning of high-level nuclear waste in Texas, is not a hard and fast ban on high-level nuclear waste. It is a bill that focuses more on the monetary gain of Waste Control Specialists because it proposes the fees that they pay to the State of Texas drop from 20% to 5%.
Craddick says that there are two separate issues: a ban on high-level nuclear waste in Texas and a bill that addresses Waste Control Specialists’ finances. Combining the two should not occur. HB 2692 not only did not fully ban Greater than Class C waste in Texas, it would have hurt the state fiscally. It also took away the current limit on the amount of nuclear waste that enters Texas. The bill would have given the company an unlimited volume of nuclear waste.
Texas HB 2692 also changed the way the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality would have oversight of Waste Control Specialists. Included in the article is the letter than Representative Craddick wrote to members of the House Committee on Environmental Regulation.