Editorials / Opinion

FEW examples better demonstrate how the government thumbs its nose at the law than the unilateral decision by the Obama administration to cancel the Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository.

In 2002, Congress overturned a "veto" by Nevada and designated Yucca Mountain as the site for the nation's deep geologic repository.

Under the terms of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the Department of Energy (DOE) submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) a 17-volume license application for Yucca in 2008. Under the law, the NRC is mandated to consider the DOE license application and is required to issue a final decision approving or denying it within three years.

Even though this law has not changed, President Obama directed that the Yucca project be terminated soon after his election. The NRC, under the direction of Chairman Gregory Jaczko (a former staff aide for Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada), stopped NRC staff from considering the Yucca license application, despite a decision by NRC's own licensing board that the license application cannot be withdrawn. The law requiring action on Yucca has not been changed by Congress — yet the Yucca site has been abandoned.

We were outraged by this unlawful termination of the Yucca site and, along with one other of our professional colleagues in the Tri-Cities, were the first individuals to declare our intention to sue the federal government to compel it to proceed with Yucca.

Washington state quickly jumped in to lead the legal challenge. Attorney General Rob McKenna and his team worked with our lawyer to build our case. We initially sued the president and DOE, the parties responsible for shutting down Yucca, but the court ruled last July that we should instead direct our legal challenge to NRC because the president and Energy Secretary Steven Chu do not have the authority to shut down the project.

The federal appellate court has agreed to hear our petition to declare the NRC's action unlawful and to direct that the Yucca licensing process proceed. The court has set May 2 to hear the case.

To their credit, many in Congress have expressed outrage at the illegal actions taken by Obama and Jaczko, and congressional investigations were launched.

Legislation was overwhelmingly passed by the House prohibiting Jaczko's efforts to kill Yucca, but Reid blocked Senate consideration. Jaczko himself came under scrutiny for his heavy-handed efforts to push NRC staff and his fellow commissioners (both Democrat and Republican) aside in stopping Yucca.

Despite Jaczko's brazen and illegal actions to cancel Yucca, some in Congress continued to defend him. U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. (for whom Jaczko also worked as a staff aide), commended the NRC chairman as being the "best chairman" in NRC's history, and accused his fellow NRC commissioners of engaging in a "regulatory meltdown" and an attempted "coup" against the chairman.

Markey's comments and actions were shameful, and many in Congress rose to criticize him. However, one of Markey's colleagues, Jay Inslee, D-Wash., who we thought would have spoken up against him, has remained silent. In fairness, we know that Inslee, who is running for Washington state governor, supports Yucca and has co-sponsored resolutions of disapproval of the administration's efforts to terminate Yucca. But we need his voice now more than ever to halt Markey's efforts to support the NRC chairman.

We are aware that Markey is a fellow Democrat and a colleague of Inslee's serving on the same House Energy Subcommittee, but we also believe this is a time for all of our representatives to support the interests of the state and the law rather than "politics as usual."

Putting aside one's views on nuclear power and the proper means for nuclear-waste disposal, no one should doubt that the rule of law is sacrosanct. Inslee should be working relentlessly to stop Markey, Chairman Jaczko and President Obama from defying the law.

We would also hope that all of the politicians representing our state will join Congressman Inslee in supporting our attorney general to uphold the law and our interests, especially in supporting a way to permanently dispose of Hanford's nuclear waste.

The headline of this editorial originally suggested Rep. Inslee has not been an advocate for proceeding with the Yucca Mountain project.