Alliance of Texas environmental, oil interests block bill that would have given nuclear waste company a financial break
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Credit: Eli Hartman for The Texas Tribune
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A bill opposed by both environmental and some oil interests that would have given a nuclear waste company in West Texas a big break on state fees failed to receive a vote in the Texas House before a key deadline on Monday.
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It was sent back to committee and has failed to be voted out a second time before Monday, the last day House committees could report measures and have a chance of passing.
The entrance to the Waste Control Specialists site, where radioactive and hazardous waste is disposed of and stored in Andrews County. Credit: Eli Hartman for The Texas Tribune
Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
A bill opposed by both environmental and some oil interests that would have given a nuclear waste company in West Texas a big break on state fees failed to receive a vote in the Texas House before a key deadline on Monday.
It was sent back to committee and has failed to be voted out a second time before Monday, the last day House committees could report measures and have a chance of passing.
AUSTIN One of the Legislature s stoutest defenders of the Texas oil industry and several of the state s top environmental organizations teamed up to deliver a likely death blow to a measure designed to give a financial break to a radioactive waste disposal company.
The legislation, House Bill 2692, was critically wounded last week when state Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland, found a procedural flaw that prevented it from coming to the House floor for a vote. It was sent back to a House committee to fix the flaw, but the panel on Monday declined to give it a second chance.
The bill was designed to grant Waste Control Specialists, the company that operates the low-level radioactive waste disposal site in Andrews County, a break on surcharges and fees levied by the state on the revenue it takes in to handle the waste. The company said it needs the breaks to remain competitive in the face of out-of-state competition.
AUSTIN Contentious legislation that would have given financial breaks to the company that operates the storage site for low-level radioactive waste in remote West Texas was derailed Wednesday on a procedural technicality in the state House.
The maneuver to knock down House Bill 2692 short-circuited what had been expected to be a freewheeling floor debate over whether the bill would have provided a backdoor to bringing the most dangerous waste from decommissioned nuclear power plants to Texas.
The legislation s author, state Rep. Brooks Landgraf, a Republican who represents the site in Andrews County, insisted it would expressly ban such waste from Texas. And he said he was mystified that anyone would interpret it otherwise.
Speaker Craddick called a point of order on the bill, which was proposed by Rep. Landgraf. Author: NewsWest 9 Updated: 2:08 PM CDT May 6, 2021
AUSTIN, Texas
(Editor s note: The above video is from earlier coverage of the house bill.)
In a press release issued Thursday, Speaker Tom Craddick says House Bill 2692 is no longer eligible for further consideration.
Craddick says he called a point of order on the bill, which was proposed by Representative Brooks Landgraf and would have dealt with the storage of high level radioactive waste in Texas.
Craddick stated in the release that the decision over whether Texas is a viable storage sight for this kind of waste is up to the federal government.