Batt Defends Nuclear Waste Deal

Gov. Phil Batt lashed out at the legislative critics of his nuclear waste deal with the federal government on Monday, specifically targeting Democratic Sen. Lynn Whitworth of Pocatello for supporting efforts to void the agreement.

“Most people when I discuss it with them will accept it after they learn the intricacies of it,” Batt told the Southeastern Idaho Chamber of Commerce. “The reasons we keep getting opposition to it is because we have certain people with a political agenda who keep stirring up the pot.

“And I’d like to tell you that you have one senator who came over here from Pocatello who played along with the other seven (Democratic) senators in the state Senate over here, casting an absolutely irresponsible attitude toward this agreement,” the governor said. “They want it to be negated. They want it to be subject to a popular vote and be ratified by the state Senate or the Legislature. … It’s merely an attempt to embarrass me politically.”

Batt underscored his charge by citing the failure of the same Democrats to demand similar action on agreements former Democratic Gov. Cecil Andrus signed with the federal government on waste cleanup at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.

Last Oct. 16, Batt agreed to a resumption of radioactive dumping at the INEL in return for promises that most waste would be removed from Idaho in 40 years. The deal restricts the number of shipments the government can send to eastern Idaho over the next four decades and precludes any of the 92,000 shipments of commercial nuclear waste the government must begin storing in 1998.

But critics claim the deal is fraught with loopholes that will simply leave Idaho as the nation’s de facto dump after the deadline for removal has passed.

Whitworth and the other Senate Democrats, led by Clint Stennett of Ketchum, introduced legislation last week to force a voter referendum on the deal as well as subject to ratification by the Legislature. Stennett also submitted legislation to impose restrictions on waste storage and transportation.