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Utah's toxic legislators
House hunting and holidays really cut into a blogger's opportunities to question the integrity of state legislators. Don't worry, though, Rep. Gowans and Sen. Davis, we haven't forgotten you. Some non-random numbers:
3. Number of times the words "Is Gowans an idiot?" or "Is Davis an idiot?" were uttered while listening to a recent committee hearing on long-term monitoring of radioactive waste in Utah. In 2001, our legislature enacted a perpetual-care fund to assure adequate funding for long-term (post-100-year) monitoring of the radioactive waste thatEnvirocare EnergySolutions dumps on us. EnergyProblems has been paying $400,000 a year into the fund. Rather than accept the Radiation Control Board's recommendation that the contribution be adjusted to the actual amount of waste being dumped, the committee decided that the poor company shouldn't have to contribute at all. Gowans (D-Tooele) volunteered to carry legislation repealing the requirement.
1. Number of companies that Gowans thinks the State is "picking on" by requiring them to contribute to the perpetual care fund. Um, there's only one company turning Utah into a radioactive waste dump. That's like Larry Miller complaining that the Utah Jazz are the only Utah company subject to the NBA's luxury tax.
$1 million. Guesstimate of how much EnergyProblems is paying Miller annually for naming rights to the Toxic Center--more than twice what it pays the State annually for long-term monitoring of radioactive waste in Utah. (And if Gowans gets his way, we won't even get that $400,000 any more.)
$1,300.00. Amount of campaign contributions received by Rep. Gowans in 2006 from EnergyProblems (his largest single contributor). Interestingly, he also received $1,000 from former Envirocare owner Khosrow Semnani. The Envirocare connection alone thus accounted for 12% of Gowans' total contributions.
700,000,000; 159,000; 432. Half-lives -- in years -- of A-level radioactive waste that EnergyProblems can presently store in Utah. “I personally don’t care what’s going to happen 750 million years from now,” Rep. David Ure (R-Kamas) said, ignoring the fact that we're actually talking about only a hundred years from now, when our great-grandchildren will be stuck with what we've left them.
0. According to Sen. Gene Davis (D-SLC), the likelihood of a plane hitting the radioactive waste dump, a protective cover cracking, excessive water entering the facility, terrorist activity, or other emergency after 100 years. The perpetual fund is “based on probability that probably will never happen," Davis said. Gee, that's funny, because some of those are the exact scenarios that Orrin Hatch and others argued were likely enough to occur that PFS should not be allowed to dump B & C-level waste here. What's that old saying, "Were we lying then or are we lying now?"
$1,400.00. Amount of campaign contributions reported by EnergyProblems to Davis in 2006, although darned if we can find them in Davis's reports. (EnergyProblems' reports show $300 to Davis as a "campaign contribution," $100 to him as a "Business Coalition Recipient," and $1,000 to him via the "Davis Open.")
2. Out of 18, the number of committee members -- Reps. Jackie Biskupski (D-SLC) and John Mathis (R-Vernal) -- who voted against letting EnergySolutions off the hook for long-term monitoring of radioactive waste in Utah.
3. Number of times the words "Is Gowans an idiot?" or "Is Davis an idiot?" were uttered while listening to a recent committee hearing on long-term monitoring of radioactive waste in Utah. In 2001, our legislature enacted a perpetual-care fund to assure adequate funding for long-term (post-100-year) monitoring of the radioactive waste that
1. Number of companies that Gowans thinks the State is "picking on" by requiring them to contribute to the perpetual care fund. Um, there's only one company turning Utah into a radioactive waste dump. That's like Larry Miller complaining that the Utah Jazz are the only Utah company subject to the NBA's luxury tax.
$1 million. Guesstimate of how much EnergyProblems is paying Miller annually for naming rights to the Toxic Center--more than twice what it pays the State annually for long-term monitoring of radioactive waste in Utah. (And if Gowans gets his way, we won't even get that $400,000 any more.)
$1,300.00. Amount of campaign contributions received by Rep. Gowans in 2006 from EnergyProblems (his largest single contributor). Interestingly, he also received $1,000 from former Envirocare owner Khosrow Semnani. The Envirocare connection alone thus accounted for 12% of Gowans' total contributions.
700,000,000; 159,000; 432. Half-lives -- in years -- of A-level radioactive waste that EnergyProblems can presently store in Utah. “I personally don’t care what’s going to happen 750 million years from now,” Rep. David Ure (R-Kamas) said, ignoring the fact that we're actually talking about only a hundred years from now, when our great-grandchildren will be stuck with what we've left them.
0. According to Sen. Gene Davis (D-SLC), the likelihood of a plane hitting the radioactive waste dump, a protective cover cracking, excessive water entering the facility, terrorist activity, or other emergency after 100 years. The perpetual fund is “based on probability that probably will never happen," Davis said. Gee, that's funny, because some of those are the exact scenarios that Orrin Hatch and others argued were likely enough to occur that PFS should not be allowed to dump B & C-level waste here. What's that old saying, "Were we lying then or are we lying now?"
$1,400.00. Amount of campaign contributions reported by EnergyProblems to Davis in 2006, although darned if we can find them in Davis's reports. (EnergyProblems' reports show $300 to Davis as a "campaign contribution," $100 to him as a "Business Coalition Recipient," and $1,000 to him via the "Davis Open.")
2. Out of 18, the number of committee members -- Reps. Jackie Biskupski (D-SLC) and John Mathis (R-Vernal) -- who voted against letting EnergySolutions off the hook for long-term monitoring of radioactive waste in Utah.
Legislators for sale-- cheap!