Six lawmakers from Texas are pushing the Supreme Court to stop the federal government from allowing a nuclear waste storage facility to be built in their state’s oil-rich Permian Basin.
In a “friend of the court” brief docketed Wednesday, Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, joined by four House members, most of them Republicans, said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s approval of the site violates congressional intent and puts the state and the whole nation at risk.
“The Permian Basin fuels the country’s economy and safeguards the country’s strategic energy independence,” said the brief. “The Commission’s actions threaten this essential resource.”
In NRC v. Texas, the Supreme Court will review a ruling by a lower bench that tossed out an NRC license for an Interim Storage Partners facility in northwestern Texas, near the New Mexico border — and thousands of miles away from any nuclear plants.
