Marta Lavandier / AP, file
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gestures during a news conference, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023, in Miami. DeSantis on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, announced plans to block state colleges from having programs on diversity, equity and inclusion, and critical race theory.
Wednesday, March 15, 2023 | 2 a.m.
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Ron DeSantis voted in favor of legislation as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives to make Yucca Mountain — the federally owned site in Nye County adjacent to the Nevada National Security Site roughly 80 miles from Las Vegas — a nuclear waste repository.
Serving Florida’s 6th Congressional District from 2012 to 2018, DeSantis in 2013 voted in favor of the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, which contained a provision to reopen the Yucca Mountain waste repository after Congress two years prior had voted to end funding for the site.
DeSantis, now the Republican governor in Florida who is expected to make a run at the presidency in 2024, has decried the transition away from fossil fuels as “left-wing stuff” and a hindrance for economic growth for businesses and taxpayers. When unveiling his state budget last month, DeSantis argued that climate activists have no desire to pursue effective methods of reducing carbon emissions — like nuclear — but instead want to impose less reliable forms of renewable energy to “exert control over people.”
They use climate change “to regulate and control everything people do, and we reject that in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said. “Notice how they don’t like gas, natural gas, they don’t like oil — they say it all should be windmills and solar panels. But what’s the cleanest of all? Nuclear.
“They almost all oppose nuclear. So, they use that to control. So, what we don’t do in Florida is embrace things to try and control people,” DeSantis continued.
DeSantis made no mention of his energy vision when he visited Las Vegas on Saturday as part of a book tour.
He did not answer questions from reporters, either before or after his speaking event. Even still, it appears DeSantis’ stance on nuclear power has remained steady since his time in Congress.
Mark Isaac, a professor at Florida State University who specializes in energy policy, told the Sun that energy policy hasn’t been a huge talking point in Florida, but that DeSantis might have an argument for expanding nuclear energy technologies.
“I personally believe that there is no realistic path to simultaneously increase the load on the grid (electric vehicles, electric stoves, electric heat, etc.) while also lowering carbon emissions without new nuclear power plants to provide baseload,” Isaac said. “I have no idea whether Gov. DeSantis agrees with me or not.”
DeSantis also voted against amendments to a bill drafted by former Republican Nevada U.S. Rep. Joe Heck and Democratic Rep. Dina Titus that would have slashed funding to reopen the repository. The amendments proposed by both Heck and Titus ultimately failed, but they were met with support from fellow Nevada Reps. Mark Amodei, a Republican, and Steven Horsford, a Democrat who now chairs the powerful Congressional Black Caucus.
In a similar iteration of the bill during the 2014 session, DeSantis again voted in favor of a bill that would have allocated $150 million for nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain. Titus again introduced two amendments that would have gutted funding in the bill intended for the repository but failed to get widespread support.
Despite near unilateral bipartisan support in the House supporting the revival of the Yucca Mountain project, the project was opposed by former President Barack Obama’s administration and faced several regulatory hurdles preventing it from moving forward.
Current U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has said on multiple occasions that President Joe Biden’s administration does not endorse the Yucca Mountain project and has questioned its viability moving forward.
DeSantis again joined a majority of lawmakers in helping pass a 2018 bill that would have directed the U.S. Department of Energy to resume licensing for a nuclear waste disposal facility at Yucca Mountain, and also increase from 70,000 metric tons to 110,000 metric tons the allowable storage for the depository. That bill cleared the House 340-72, but it died in the Senate as then-President Donald Trump said he opposed the measure after requesting $120 million the year before to restart licensing activity for Yucca Mountain.
Before DeSantis’ speaking engagement Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada State Democratic Party chairwoman Daniele Monroe-Moreno painted the Florida governor as an “extreme” conservative whose views on abortion and immigration have already been rejected by Nevadans in prior elections. The same rings true with any efforts to revive the Yucca Mountain project, she said.
“I think Nevadans have stood firm on where we stand about nuclear waste,” said Monroe-Moreno, the majority whip in the Nevada Assembly. “We do not want it in the state of Nevada, it’s not best for us. And we’ll continue to hold that position.”
Nevada lawmakers — both Republican and Democratic — have opposed the Yucca Mountain project since it was first planned in the late 1980s. In 2017, former U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, a Republican, told the Pahrump Valley Times he was “the only person standing between Yucca Mountain happening and not happening,” and that he “was the only person that can stop that.”
Even today, Nevada’s federal congressional delegation continues to warn about the environmental risks the project poses.
In the aftermath of a train derailment in which toxic chemicals were released into the air and nearby water streams last month in East Palestine, Ohio, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., maintained in a hearing last week that if a similar derailment happened while transporting nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, it could wreak havoc on Nevada’s environment and tourism sector.
“It’s a prime example of why state consent is critical,” Cortez Masto said during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing Thursday. “Shipments would pass through Nevada, and it is vital we have a buy-in from all impacted levels of government.”
Cortez Masto is among the many Nevada lawmakers in recent years to introduce a bill that would require notification to state, local and tribal governments whenever cargo containing hazardous materials is passing through.
Cortez Masto on Feb. 14 reintroduced the Nuclear Waste Informed Consent Act, which would require the Energy Secretary to obtain consent of an affected state or local government before transporting nuclear waste. Similar iterations of the bill have been introduced on a near-annual basis, though has never garnered enough support to become law.
