Perry critics say waste license is a case study in 'crony capitalism'

[white cloud]

AUSTIN -- In 2008, Larry Soward, one of three commissioners on Texas' environmental regulatory agency, cast the lone dissenting vote against licensing a controversial low-level nuclear disposal site in far West Texas.

Looking back now, Soward says, "it didn't take too much of a rocket scientist" to conclude that the project, pushed by one of Gov. Rick Perry's biggest political donors, would ultimately be approved.

Dallas multibillionaire Harold Simmons' successful quest to build the Andrews County facility is encountering renewed scrutiny now that his political beneficiary is one of the leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/09/24/3394208/perry-critics-say-waste-license.html

[plumbob]

1. And the billionaire didn't have to borrow his own money to build it -

Andrews passed a bond issue which he promises to repay, but cannot be legally forced to do.

AND the state of Texas taxpayers are one hundred per cent liable for all damages resulting from an accident of leak over there.

This is 30 miles from my house, and it was like yelling down a well while this was being approved.

[sonias]

2. It's the worst example ever

Perry is Harold Simmon's lap dog. And all of Texas will pay for the nuclear waste dump forever.
:puke:

[sonias]

3. Meet the Shady Dallas Mega-Billionaire Industrialis

Alternet 8/29/11
Meet the Shady Dallas Mega-Billionaire Industrialist Pouring Money into Rick Perry's Coffers

Like so many Republican officials of the tea party persuasion, Rick Perry despises the Environmental Protection Agency—a feeling he has expressed repeatedly in speeches, lawsuits, legislation and even a book titled “Fed Up!” Perhaps that is only natural for the governor of Texas, a “dirty energy” state where the protection of air, water and human health rank well below the defense of oil company profits for most politicians.

But Perry has at least one other reason for smacking down those bureaucrats so eagerly. When environmental regulators do their job properly, that can mean serious trouble for Perry’s largest political donors.

The outstanding example is Harold Simmons, a Dallas mega-billionaire industrialist who has donated well over a million dollars to Perry’s campaign committees recently. With Perry’s eager assistance—and despite warnings from Texas environmental officials—Simmons has gotten approval to build an enormous radioactive waste dump on top of a crucial underground water supply.

“We first had to change the law to where a private company can own a license, and we did that,” Simmons boasted in 2006, after the Texas Legislature and the governor rubber-stamped initial legislation and approvals for the project. “Then we got another law passed that said (the state) can only issue one license. Of course, we were the only ones that applied.”

:puke: