Last week, Nevadans found out that MAGA extremist Sam Brown thinks that restarting Yucca Mountain and turning Nevada into the nation’s nuclear waste dumping ground is an “incredible opportunity.” It’s an extreme, out-of-touch position that “could roil Nevada U.S. Senate race,” as outlets and critics across the state call Brown’s stance “not very aware,” “reckless,” and “politically damaging.”
Over three days, the Nevada State Democratic Party is highlighting all the ways Sam Brown is putting himself at odds with Nevada’s environmental, business and elected leaders by strongly supporting the plan to restart Yucca Mountain.
Brown’s extreme support for reviving Yucca Mountain puts him directly at odds with the elected leaders from across the political spectrum in Nevada.
Nevada Democrats have always stood strong against effort to turn Nevada into a dumping ground for the nation’s nuclear waste:
- Senators Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto, as well as the entire Nevada Democratic Congressional delegation, have led efforts in Washington against using Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste storage site.
Nevada Republicans who have opposed Yucca Mountain include:
- Congressman Mark Amodei, Nevada’s only Republican congressional member, is strongly against a Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site, and has a record in Congress of voting against it.
- GOP Senator Dean Heller was a vocal opponent of Yucca, saying “Washington needs to understand what Nevada has been saying for years: we will not be the nation’s nuclear waste dump.”
- Former Republican Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt threatened to sue the Trump administration if it continued with claims for the nuclear repository.
- Former GOP Governor Brian Sandoval vowed to “vigorously fight” against the Trump administration’s proposal to store high-level nuclear waste in Nevada.
- Former Republican Governor Jim Gibbons celebrated President Obama’s decision to end funding for the Yucca Mountain project.
- Nevada Democrats have repeatedly fought to keep funding for this project out of our national defense bills and led the effort to make sure that states and communities give consent before the federal government makes any decision about storing nuclear waste.
- Former Republican Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske approved a contract that enabled the state to fight against renewed efforts to store nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain during Trump’s presidency.
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