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Energy Secretary Richardson Saves Taxpayers $5 Billion
Supports
DOE Tritium Decision and Oppose Pork Barrel Opponents
Washington,
D.C. – Making the best of a bad set of options, Secretary of
Energy Bill Richardson courageously saved American taxpayers at
least $5 billion by choosing on December 22 to produce tritium in
the cheapest and most flexible way, according to a letter sent today
to all Members of Congress by a national taxpayer organization.
"Secretary
Richardson should get the Santa Claus medal for saving American
taxpayers at least $5 billion three days before Christmas,"
said Ralph DeGennaro, Executive Director of Taxpayers for Common
Sense, a national budget watchdog group in Washington, D.C. "TCS
thinks the best alternative would be for the U.S. to reduce its
nuclear weapons arsenal so it doesn’t need more tritium. But
Congress didn’t give Richardson that choice, and he made the
right decision."
Richardson announced
Dec. 22 that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) would produce tritium
at the Watts Bar and Sequoyah nuclear power plants in Tennessee.
Under current law, Richardson is required to select by Dec. 31,
1998 a way to produce tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons. Richardson
was under enormous pressure from pork barrel lobbying for alternative
sites that would be far more costly. Political support in Congress
is particularly strong for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
"Richardson
also announced almost $1 billion in projects for the Savannah River
Site in South Carolina, but they’re so spoiled-rotten that
they’ll whine that $1 billion for Christmas isn’t enough,"
said DeGennaro.
The three-page
letter to Congress endorsing the Richardson decision can be found
by going to the TCS web site at: www.taxpayer.net |
