MIDLAND, TX (KWES) - A surprising coalition of environmentalists and oil company officials are teaming up to show support for amendments in the Texas Legislature that would ban high-level radioactive waste in Texas.
Representatives including Karen Hadden, director of the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition , Adrian Shelly, director of Public Citizen’s Texas office , Tommy Taylor, director of oil and gas development at Fasken Oil in Odessa-Midland, will be among those on the street in front of the Texas Capitol.
Waste Control Specialists, a radioactive waste dump in West Texas, is seeking legislation that would lead to expansion of low-level nuclear waste imported into Texas and eliminate the fee the company pays to the state.
Some in the West Texas oil industry are worried the nuclear waste could contaminate the Permian Basin.
The legislation, SB 1021 by Sen. Kel Seliger and HB 2269 by Rep. Brooks Landgraf, would expand the amount of dangerous low-level radioactive waste imported into the state.
Seliger’s bill is expected to hit the Senate floor this week.
WCS also has an application pending to import high-level waste into Texas.
Members of the coalition – flanked by a large inflatable mock nuclear waste canister - will speak in favor of expected amendments that would prevent high-level waste from being imported to Texas.
