Archive for category Yucca Mountain
Nevada Energy Park Wins Hands Down
Posted by Tom in Nevada, Yucca Mountain on March 12, 2012
It’s no surprise to me that Nevadans expressed strong support for using Yucca Mountain to bring research, new industry and jobs to Nevada. NV4CFE commissioned a respected independent polling firm, Public Opinion Strategies, to poll like voters in a statewide survey. That was conducted February 21-23, 2012 and here are the results:
Note the support for the energy/research park concept was stronger the closer the respondents were to Yucca. Clark County voters, labor unions and teacher union members all expressed strong support for the new industry and jobs NEP will bring.
Hopefully, the timid politicians will now become leaders in this effort to improve our Nevada economy. Check out and support the pro bono efforts of the folks at NV4CFE.org. If interested citizens get behind this it can become a reality, sometimes we need to push the politicians.
Ty Cobb: The New Energy Equation
Posted by Tom in Energy Facts & Policies, Nevada, Yucca Mountain on November 29, 2011
Ty Cobb’s interview on Anjeanette Damon’s To The Point show on News 4
gives an interesting summary brief on the new energy equation:
It’s good to have him in our group.
Wake Up Nevada: New Industry Needed
Posted by Tom in Nevada, State Finances, Yucca Mountain on May 18, 2011
This op-ed from Tom Cargill and Mark Pingle as published on the RGJ May 17th.
Nevada’s near monopoly on legalized casino gambling fueled an economic boom that made it the fastest growing state for five straight decades. The associated business development and population in-migration supported a construction boom, making Nevada’s construction sector larger than that of any other state.
However, Nevada no longer has the “only game in town.” Proliferated Indian gaming and legalization in other states have especially hurt Northern Nevada gaming, and world-class gambling in Asia means Las Vegas is also no longer immune to competition.
Moreover, the recession has decimated Nevada’s construction industry. An economic storm has blown Nevada from the top of the economic heap to the bottom. The state is in need of an economic makeover, a hard reality Nevada must face.
Economic diversification has been the clarion call of Nevada policymakers for decades — easier said than done. Most diversification efforts amount to “two birds in the bush,” laudable but iffy. We suggest it is time to consider a “bird in the hand,” a more certain route to diversification and to shoring up Nevada’s fiscal house.
A fundamental entrepreneurship dictum is “problems create opportunities.” Disposing of nuclear waste has long been a significant national problem. As a result, there is a tremendous entrepreneurial opportunity for Nevada.
President Obama has indicated nuclear power will remain an important part of U.S. energy policy despite Fukushima. Nevada should not ignore the Yucca opportunity because of unfounded fears, special interests nor political pandering.
The choice of Yucca Mountain in 1987 as the preferred long-term storage site for nuclear waste put a bird in Nevada’s hand. To date, most Nevada policymakers have preferred not to have this bird in Nevada’s backyard. The “not-in-my-backyard” argument played well when the gaming and construction bushes were supplying so many birds, but times have changed. Pursuing Yucca has advantages, economically and politically.
Economically, Yucca Mountain, merely as a storage facility, would provide substantial long-term employment, state tax revenues and some of the illusive diversification Nevada has been seeking. Wise negotiation could increase these benefits by moving the facility toward becoming a reprocessing center and a focal point for nuclear research dollars.
Politically, developing Yucca Mountain offers an alternative to two that are unattractive. Should Nevada be cutting government services that support economic development and diversification at this time? Proponents say no, but the tax increases necessary to fund the services would work against any diversification effort. Developing Yucca provides a path for maintaining some valuable government services without tax increases.
As economists, we are trained to count costs and benefits. Developing Yucca Mountain would not provide Nevada with a free lunch. There are risks and challenges with any entrepreneurial venture. There will be costs and risks. But, it is unprofessional to ignore the benefits and potential, which is the tendency of NIMBY adherents.
It is time to reconsider the development of Yucca Mountain.
Thomas F. Cargill and Mark A. Pingle are professors of economics at the University of Nevada, Reno.
It’s time for a realistic approach to Yucca Mountain
Posted by Tom in Yucca Mountain on April 17, 2011
The following is an op-ed by Ty Cobb formerly with the Reagan White House, as published in the Reno Gazette journal April 17, 2011.
There can no longer be any doubt that the licensing process for the Yucca repository will be restarted. The only question is whether Nevada will seize this moment to demand that its concerns be addressed and that the state be appropriately compensated.
Two years ago, the Obama administration, fulfilling a campaign commitment to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., closed down the repository. That was done in spite of the law of the land, the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982/87, that stipulated — and still does — that Yucca be the nation’s nuclear spent fuel site. Much has changed recently.
First, several states have sued to force the government to comply with the law, and they will surely win in the courts.
Second, a panel of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency that oversees nuclear energy and waste activities, also ruled that the halting of the Yucca licensing process was illegal. The whole NRC has yet to vote, primarily because Reid’s former staffer Greg Jaczko heads that body. However, his delaying tactics have caused a revolt by the other commissioners, who are demanding a vote.
Finally, the Japanese tsunami that caused such damage to nuclear reactors has called into question the wisdom of leaving spent nuclear fuel at reactor sites any longer than is necessary.
To most observers, the choice of where this spent fuel should be stored is obvious — it must be placed in an already prepared, deep underground facility, on a secure military reservation more than 100 miles from any populated center.
Currently, the waste is stored at about 104 reactor and defense production sites, many located in earthquake-prone and tsunami-vulnerable zones. The spent fuel is then kept above ground at sites weakly defended against terrorist attacks and within 75 miles of 165 million people.
The state of Nevada has fought Yucca so hard that it has squandered both its money and its extensive political capital. Nevada gets less back from the federal government than virtually any other state because its officials have chosen to make halting Yucca its highest, if not the sole, priority. Further, stopping Yucca has cost us $300 million a year in direct aid and more than 3,000 top-paying jobs.
This must change. We have precious little time to exert our leverage before the repository is forced on the state. If we negotiate now, we can ensure that our transport and storage concerns are met. We also can demand significant financial compensation, as Alaska does with its trust fund for oil extraction.
A group of independent business leaders has proposed that Nevada also insist that the government create a “Nevada Energy Park” at the site. The spent fuel would be stored only for an interim period, then ultimately utilize emerging recycling technology for reuse and resale. The NEP would be home to a major center for research on alternative energies. The group believes the park would bring $4 billion to the state, generate $1 billion a year for education and infrastructure, yield annual dividend payments to our citizens, create more than 10,000 high-paying jobs and make Nevada the leader in energy development strategies.
Sure sounds better than our current policy, doesn’t it?
Tyrus W. Cobb of Reno served as special assistant to the president for national security affairs in the Reagan White House.
How About A Nevada Permanent Fund?
Posted by Tom in Energy Facts & Policies, State Finances, Yucca Mountain on February 25, 2011
The Nevada Energy Park idea being discussed by more and more energy savvy thinkers would be a boon to the state far exceeding the gold rush, the silver rush, the divorce rush and the gambling rush. I read with interest the Tax Foundation’s Special Report on State & Local Tax Burdens, which had the following sub-headline:
Alaska is able to export almost
80 percent of its tax collections to
residents of other states… While
taxpayers in 43 states are busy
filing income tax returns in April,
Alaskans are instead receiving checks
from a multi-billion-dollar reserve
fund built up from years of large
severance taxes on oil extraction.
Nuclear power is to Nevada what oil is to Alaska. The Alaska Permanent Fund provides an ongoing annual dividend to Alaskans. A Nevada Permanent Fund could likewise provide and annual check to Nevada families approximating $2,500.
Nevada has a resource that no other state has, a federally designated nuclear storage facility which can be expanded to fuel rod reprocessing, energy research and development and nuclear power generation. The Nevada Energy Park would generate new diverse industry, a new academic center of excellence in energy research and development, significant revenue for the state treasury, and an annual dividend check for each family in the state.
The best part is that utility rate payers in 43 other states are already paying for the development of the Nevada Energy Park. That’s correct over $30 Billion is available and growing each year in the Nuclear Waste Trust Fund. Pretty good potential source to start the NEP development, the Nevada Permanent Fund, and solve the state’s budget problems.
This idea is just getting started. Check out NV4CFE.org. Let me know what you think.
Harry Reid…Nevada Doldrum
Posted by Tom in Housing, Nevada, Politics, Real Estate, Unions, Yucca Mountain on February 23, 2011
Old Harry sure has done a lot for Nevada, or is it to Nevada?
Here’s some recent foreclosure data for Reno and Las Vegas:
One in sixteen homes in Reno is in foreclosure; and one in nine homes is Las Vegas is in foreclosure, that’s 11%!
The unemployment rate in the state is 14.6%
Yet Reid rejects a Nevada Energy Park plan for nuclear reprocessing and generation which would not only bring thousands of jobs to the state but create a Nevada Permanent Fund, much like Alaska’s, that would pay each family an annual dividend of over $2,000! Harry is sending jobs and money to other states.
Oh, if that’s not enough, Harry now wants to ban prostitution! Yep, kick another industry out! Makes no sense at all. At least these folks work for a living, something Harry who had fed at the public trough for too many years, doesn’t understand!
Maybe Harry just got religion or something. If that’s the case, the gaming industry should start to worry. After all he may next consider gambling a vice!
The public union bosses should apologize to their members for getting this idiot elected. It’s the members who are suffering, not the fat cat bosses.
Open Letter to Congressman Dean Heller on Yucca
Posted by Tom in Nevada, Politics, State Finances, Yucca Mountain on February 21, 2011
Dear Congressmen Heller,
We were disappointed to learn of your support for Senator Harry Reid in blocking the Yucca Nuclear Repository. You proposed an amendment that would have defunded the project entirely. Many citizens of Nevada are pleased your amendment was defeated by voice vote.
As many informed citizens believe, Yucca could be an important resource to Nevada, every bit as important as the Alaska Pipeline was and is to Alaska. The proposition to convert Yucca to Temporary Storage, Nuclear Reprocessing, Energy Research and Development and eventually Nuclear Power Generation is a treasure available to Nevada that no other state has. With it Nevada can create a new industry, thousands of new jobs, and a more diverse economic base. With it Nevada can resolve its structural state deficit. And, most importantly, with it we can create a Nevada Permanent Fund under which each family in the state would receive an annual dividend eventually approximating $2,500 per year.
This concept has been overwhelmingly endorsed by several knowledgeable business groups, both in Reno and Las Vegas. It has been endorsed by every social service organization to which it has been presented. And it has been endorsed by every conservative political action group that has heard it.
We believe your amendment seems somewhat out of touch with current thinking.We have formed a group, the Reno Hayek Symposium, which is a voluntary group of conservatives in Northern Nevada. We are in conversations with our friends in Las Vegas to develop a comparable Hayek Group.
We hope to be able to support you in future elections. But, with all due respect, a word of caution is necessary: emulating Harry Reid in blocking the one uniquely available resource open to Nevada, is not the way to gain that support.
Sincerely,
Other States Poach Nevada’s Golden Opportunity
Posted by Tom in Environment, Homeland Security, Nevada, State Finances, Terrorism, Yucca Mountain on January 6, 2011
Nevada had better watch out, other states like Texas see jobs and revenue in nuclear sites. While it is true that Nevada has the only federal statutory designation as a repository for spent nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain, Texas now has decided to accept low-level waste from 36 states. Today’s WSJ sets it out well in Texas Welcomes Nuclear Discards.
Strange but Nevada has not seen the money, jobs, industry and research that can come with the current monopoly it has via Yucca Mountain on temporary storage of spent fuel. A group called Nevadans For Carbon Free Energy, http://NV4CFE.org, has developed the concept of an energy park that would provide temporary storage, develop reprocessing and recycling, and eventually grow into power generation. The benefits to the state include jobs, state revenue, and money for the residents along the lines of the Alaska Permanent Fund.
It’s worth serious consideration given the unemployment and budget deficits. Here’s a short video from their website:
November Reno Hayek Dinner
Our thanks go to Chuck Baird for an outstanding presentation last evening on the problems with union law in this country. Now unions are dominant in the public sector thanks to John F. Kennedy’s establishing them in 1961 and weak in the private sector thanks to basic economics. Federal labor law controls the private sector unions and federal public unions and state laws control all state public employee unions.
Basically, the Roosevelt labor law is unfair to individual workers. They are forced to be represented by a union they don’t vote for. In essence, forced into an election that otherwise would not pertain at common law. They give up excellence in exchange for mediocrity, no, less than mediocrity, they give it up for the lowest common denominator. Perhaps they are forced to give it up by peer pressure, in the strongest sense of the term. They are forced to pay dues under the theory that the union is benefiting them, whether or not it is. There is forced mandatory good faith bargaining on whatever the union bosses want. In short, labor wins and the law is biased.
The Government Employee Unions, (GEUs), are in an unholy, incestuous alliance with their employers. They “bargain” and get wage and salary increases and exorbitant benefits in exchange for votes. There is no competition to keep them honest. There is no competition or profit motive to keep the employers honest. It’s a relationship made in hell. In effect, they sit on the same side of the bargaining table and then hire their own bosses.
It’s gotta stop! Voluntary unionism is the answer. See: “Toward a Free-Market Union Law,”www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj30n1/cj30n1-12.pdf
We also had a briefing, last evening, from Randy York on the results of our Nevada state fundraising activities. Of the 11 candidates we supported 8 were elected which helped retain the Republican super minority in both houses of the legislature. This one-third minority is necessary to block the tax part of the tax and spend Democrats! The breakdown: Senate: 11 Democrats and 10 Republicans for a pickup of 1. House: 26 Democrats and 16 Republicans for a pickup of 2. Sadly some good people lost, but we’ll make up for that in 2012.
Randy also briefed on NV4CFE. In view of Reid’s re-election and his opposition to real jobs in Nevada (he likes green subsidized jobs that a free market will not support), we need to get to the public and the congressional representatives of the 34 states that have nuclear waste waiting, behind NV3CFE’s Yucca Business Park proposal. We also need to get to interested industry behing reasonable solutions. It’s full speed ahead on all those efforts.
Finally, we had an exciting presentation from John Killoran and Hawley MacClean on the Reno Tahoe Olympic Bid for the 2022 Winter Games. This was a preview of a more detailed presentation they will give in the spring. They advertised one hell-of-a-lot of benefits in excess of the costs needed to pull this off. The economics, I’m sure, will be tested in the full presentation.
I have had great reports from those who attended last evening and want to again thank our speakers. We are dark dinner-wise for December and January. On February 15th we will have Greg Casey president of BIPAC and a former Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate as our speaker. Then, on March 15th we will have Ty Cobb who after distinguished military service worked in the Reagan White House reporting to the President as part of the National Security Council.
July Hayek Dinner: State of the Economy
Posted by Tom in Centrally Managed Economy, Deficit, Economics, Employment, Financial Crisis, Financial Policy, Government Regulation, Individual Freedom, Monetary Policy, National Character, National Debt, Statism, Yucca Mountain on July 21, 2010
Our thanks to Tom Cargill for the excellent presentation last evening and to Jerry O’Driscoll for arranging the meeting in my absence.
Jerry opened with a snapshot on employment trends from selected countries since 2008. The US is at the bottom of the pile and trending down!
Tom picked it up from there with a quick look back on the first decade of this century focusing on four remarkable points: 1. US homeland is vulnerable to attack since 911; the first since the war of 1812. 2. Critics of the market are strong despite the increase in standard of living in the last quarter century. 3. Failures of the welfare state notwithstanding, the US is moving toward socialism. And, 4. the political force toward socialism can be traced to our current great recession.
Technically, the recession is still in full force. The question is what kind of recovery will come, weak flat “U” or “J,” or a double dip. Ten key points are apparent:
- the US has not seen more economic, financial, and political distress since the Great Depression.
- our recession was not caused by market failure but mainly by government failure, both monetary with low rates too long and fiscally with housing policies of Fannie-Freddie.
- yet, the public hypnotized by Obama rhetoric believes market failure was the cause.
- admittedly, the $700 billion financial bailout was necessary to prevent a liquidity crisis.
- but the five “stimulus” packages ignored history and had a negative effect, negative Keynesian multiplier, on the GDP. Wasteful spending directed to leftist programs.
- while we now see some GDP growth, the private sector is not creating jobs and budget pressures will force a decline in public sector employment.
- the private market is not creating jobs due to the great uncertainty of the rules of the game; we are going to state directed allocation of resources not market directed allocation.
- Adam Smith calls man an economic animal, “truck, barter, and exchange” but the uncertainty of the rules creates inefficiencies that lower growth potential.
- the economic game becomes even more uncertain because of the greater role of government; what happens to the chess game if it is announced in the middle of the game that there will be a rule change; Obama is regularly announcing rule changes to come!
- QED, the most likely “recovery” is a flat “J” over the next several years with a chance of a double dip.
Tom now thinks the chance of a double dip is 50/50, an increase from his earlier thinking. Potential economic shocks which will push toward a double dip are: the dramatic increase in taxes next year, and the questionable stability of the European Union. The current divergence in fiscal policy between the overspending US and the rapid austerity in Europe may well be a third negative shock. Tom concluded saying that only a change in the US congress and administration will offer hope of a solid recovery.
We thank Beth Powers and her crew for her comments and patriotic efforts with LibertyInAmerica.org. Please consider a donation to help continue the fine bus treck.
John Dunn provided a positive report on Yucca mountain efforts, see NV4CFE.org.
Finally, our thanks to Mike Herring for treating the group to dinner and drinks, this an an inducement to make contributions to Sharron Angle’s campaign to retire Dirty Harry.