Harry Reid said the following in a newsletter to his constituents yesterday:
“In his budget request for 2010, President Obama will announce plans to devise a new strategy to find another solution to deal with the nation’s nuclear waste that does not include storing it in Nevada.”
This is a shame if so. The Yucca Mountain project currently employs hundreds of people and stands to employ thousands more, not to mention the nearly $100 billion it would bring into the hurting state economy.
The operation of nuclear energy plants and the transportation, recycling, and storage of spent nuclear fuel can be done quite safely these days - in fact is done safely all over Europe - but apparently Harry Reid is not going to let the facts get in the way of politics-per-usual and a Wednesday press release. (More on the latest with Yucca here.)
This is the second time in less than three weeks an Obama agenda item has dealt a heavy blow to Nevada’s economy. What was the first, you ask? This offhand comment recently made at a townhall meeting:
“You are not going to be able to give out these big bonuses until you’ve paid taxpayers back, you can’t get corporate jets, you can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers dime.”
Rich Becker wrote an excellent piece on the fallout of that comment, which summed up is this:
Companies are now scrambling to avoid the “stigma” of holding company functions in Las Vegas and millions of dollars have been lost due to cancelled rooms and convention events. (These organizations aren’t really cancelling the events; they’re just relocating them. To sunny California, mostly.) And the tremendous loss of room revenue, convention business, enertainment dollars, and gaming revenue is going to lead to even more layoffs than Nevada’s already seen.
So where are Harry Reid (and Dina Titus) with their outrage and big press releases when Nevada’s economy really needs them? Busy rubbing elbows with a president who clearly doesn’t give a damn about the what’s best for the Silver State.
I guess Nevada is now “blue” in more ways than one.
But don’t just stand there and cry, good citizens. You can do something:
