Judge Slaps Down another Bad Obama Decision

The worst decision in the arena of energy made by President Obama has been the short-sighted elimination of the Yuacc Mountain nuclear repository. 20 years and $20 billion in studies, appeals, reviews and tests have gone in to verifying that Yucca Mountain in Nevada will be a safe repository for nuclear waste. Without this repository, use fuel from 40 years of civilian nuclear generation at 100 U.S. nuclear plants, and also Cold War nuclear materials and wastes would be stuck in facilities across the country. In on fell swoop, Obama had destroyed the future prospects for the our Number One Co2-emissions-free energy source.

But Harry Reid is against Yucca Mountain, and Nevada has voters to curry, so Obama had his DOE unilaterally kill Yucca Mountain. What a travesty that so much public policy damage was done on behalf of such an insignificant cause - Harry Reid's re-election. (Which won't happen anyway.)

Thankfully, some Judges have noticed the law doesn't allow such a blatant disregard for Congressional intent: Judges block Obama effort to close Yucca Mountain waste site:

"Unless Congress directs otherwise, DOE may not single-handedly derail the legislated decision-making process by withdrawing the (Yucca repository) application. DOE's motion must therefore be denied," the judges wrote, adding that the DOE had weakened its arguments by "conceding that the application is not flawed nor the (Yucca) site unsafe."

"Given the stated purposes of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act and the detailed structure of that legislation, it would be illogical to allow DOE to withdraw the application without any examination of the merits," the judges found.