GLOBAL CLIMATE DEBATE

Sanford May Seek Legal Action Against Obama Over Yucca

South Carolina could be the first state to sue over the Obama Administration's decision to end the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project, after Gov. Mark Sanford held a news conference today in Columbia, S.C. with members of the Congressional Delegation and General Assembly.

The group announced its opposition to the halt on repository funding and federal withdrawal of the waste repository's Nuclear Regulatory Commission license application.

"We'd respectfully but fervently disagree with the Obama Administration's decision to abandon the 23-year bipartisan project establishing Yucca Mountain as the nation's primary permanent nuclear waste storage site," Gov. Sanford said at the hearing. "Not only does this spectacularly misguided decision break a decades-long promise made to South Carolina and other states, but it represents the same Chicago-style political patronage that this President has indeed campaigned against."

Sanford says it "breaks a promise" the government made decades ago to dispose of military and civilian waste - a decision made in 1982 during the Nuclear Waste Policy Act.

South Carolina has roughly 4,000 metric tons of nuclear waste, including defense-related material stored at the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site and spent fuel at seven commercial reactors.

"Over the last 18 years, South Carolina ratepayers have contributed over $1.2 billion to the Yucca Mountain project, and the Obama Administration's recent decision means we will get nothing - literally nothing - in return.," Gov. Sanford said today.

Gov. Sanford asked the state's attorney general to seek legal options to force a go-ahead of the project, though the governor's office told Clean Skies News there have been no announcements on specific legal action as of yet.