The Texas Compact Commission will meet this week to vote on its proposed import rule, which would open Waste Control Specialists up to ink contracts for waste from across the country. The meeting will be held March 23 in Austin, Texas, beginning at 9 a.m. at the Capitol Extension building. The Texas Compact Commission has been debating its import forms and applications for more than a year, and if it votes to accept the proposed language this week those documents could be final as early as April. Import is particularly important for WCS as generators from Compact states Texas and Vermont have applied for a contested rate case hearing, and my not look to send waste there as quickly as non-compact generators.
The question of whether Texas and Vermont generators should be able to export Class A waste to EnergySolutions’ Clive, Utah facility—instead of waiting to send that material to WCS when it opens this year—will also be discussed at the meeting. Chairman Bob Wilson has argued in the past that keeping Class A within the compact would help in making WCS’ Andrews, Texas facility fiscally viable. The Texas Compact Commission has discussed openly eliminating that option for export to generators such as the South Texas Project, Luminant Energy, and Entergy Vermont Yankee. Also this week:
- The budget picture for the NNSA and other Department of Energy programs is likely to get a little bit clearer this week. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) is expected on Tuesday to unveil the chamber’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget resolution, which would establish top-line spending levels and priorities for the House GOP;
- NNSA Administrator and DOE Under Secretary for Nuclear Security Tom D’Agostino will appear before the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday to continue to make the case for the budgets of the NNSA and DOE’s Office of Environmental Management; and
- Two Congressional Nuclear Cleanup Caucus briefings are scheduled this week in Washington, D.C. On Wednesday at 8:30 am, the briefing for the Oak Ridge site will be held at the Longworth House Office Building, while on Thursday at 8:30 am a briefing for the Portsmouth and Paducah sites will be held in the Capitol Building.