Calls rush in over N-dump

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s office has been inundated with calls from people who want him to veto the so-called EnergySolutions bill.

A one-day tally Tuesday counted 320 telephone calls. Meanwhile, Huntsman has until Tuesday to decide whether he will veto the bill, which would eliminate the role of the governor, the Legislature and local elected officials in deciding on major expansions at the nuclear waste company's Utah landfill. He wasn't saying Wednesday what he plans to do.

"I'm reviewing it," said the Republican governor, who vetoed a bill last year that would have taken away the need for his approval on new waste sites and major expansions.

"I want to make sure there are no backdoors in terms of volumes of waste [and] in terms of hotter waste."

The bill passed both the House and the Senate with enough votes to override a Huntsman veto. Opponents need three senators or six House members to change their votes for a Huntsman veto to hold up.
EnergySolutions' 12 lobbyists have redoubled their efforts in the Legislature, where support has generally been stronger than in the governor's office. The company has said the state law requiring elected leaders to weigh in was never intended to apply to its operations, which, if the bill becomes law, would be free to take five times as much waste as it already has at the mile-square hazardous and radioactive waste landfill in Tooele County.

Greg Hopkins, EnergySolutions vice president of public affairs, said lots of misinformation surrounds the bill and the measure would not change operations.

"The governor has ample information to make a decision, including the advice of his own Department of Environmental Quality as well as from the attorney general who is in favor of this legislation," he said. "Therefore, we have not sought an audience with the governor or his staff on this issue."
Hopkins served as a fundraiser for Huntsman before going to work for EnergySolutions.

The Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah also has been in the halls - urging lawmakers to side with the governor if he rejects the bill.
Lobbyists from the group said in a news conference last week that lawmakers appear to be out of step with the public, according to a recent poll. HEAL advocates say 70 percent of lawmakers have taken money from the company and 70 percent voted for the bill, which affects only EnergySolutions.

In addition, a new, Draper-based group emerged last week to rally opposition. The loosely formed Citizens Against Nuclear Waste in Utah took out ads Sunday in Salt Lake City newspapers urging people to call their legislators to oppose the bill.

The ad suggests Utah will stand out for its Greatest Snow on Earth, as being the home to the 2002 Olympics and, if SB155 passes, home to "the largest radioactive waste pile in the world."

Draper resident Pamela Bingham noted she fought a similar legislative effort to eliminate the need for the governor to approve of waste-site expansion last year. Bingham said she still wants elected leaders to be a check and balance on EnergySolutions.
But she's not optimistic.

"I don't know if we have been able to change any minds," she said. "And, obviously, they [the legislators] have been paid" in the form of lobbyist gifts and campaign contributions.