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A2 UP FRONT
Tuesday 30 augusT 2022
Continued from Front for more than a decade
The court's 6-3 ruling said and faces strong bipartisan
EPA violated the "major opposition.
questions" doctrine in reg- The NRC, in a legal filing in
ulating greenhouse gas the 5th Circuit case, said
emissions by power plants. the Texas license is not an
The decision held that Con- example of overreach
gress must speak with spec- because the agency has
ificity when it wants to give "longstanding" authority on
an agency authority to reg- the issue, including in the
ulate on an issue of major 1954 Atomic Energy Act.
national significance. "The materials license is-
Several conservative jus- sued here reflects a con-
tices have criticized what ventional exercise of NRC's
they see as the unchecked longstanding and exclusive
power of federal agencies. authority over a matter that
Some legal experts sug- lies at the core of its exper-
gested the Supreme Court tise,'' the agency wrote.
ruling also might be cited in Congress has "clearly and
challenges to President Joe expressly" granted author-
Biden's announcement last ity to the NRC to license off-
week that the administra- site nuclear fuel storage fa-
tion would provide $10,000 cilities, including in the 1954
in student debt cancella- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks to the media, Jan. 27, 2022, in Weslaco., Texas. law, the agency added.
tion for millions of Ameri- Associated Press An NRC spokesman de-
cans — and up to $10,000 clined to comment, refer-
more for those with the contended in a court filing nuclear power. view. "It's disturbing that the ring a reporter to the legal
greatest financial need. soon after the high court The group argues in a NRC put its oar in on a poli- filing.
Jay Duffy, an attorney for ruling that the Nuclear Reg- separate case before the cy decision that belongs to In formal comments filed
the environmental group ulatory Commission lacked D.C. Circuit Court of Ap- Congress,'' namely, where with the SEC, meanwhile,
Clean Air Task Force, said specific direction from peals that a license issued to store nuclear waste. 21 Republican attorneys
the ruling in West Virginia Congress when it licensed to Texas-based Interim Wallace Taylor, a lawyer general led by Morrisey ar-
v. EPA shows the Supreme a private company to tem- Storage Partners to store who represents the Sierra gue that the agency is try-
Court will look skeptically porarily store spent, radio- thousands of metric tons of Club on nuclear issues, said ing to transform itself from
at a variety of executive active waste in west Texas spent nuclear fuel for up to he appreciates the irony the federal overseer of se-
branch actions. The court's near the border with New 40 years is invalid because that environmental groups curities "into the regulator
conservative majority "set Mexico. "it ignored the unambigu- are siding with staunch of broader social ills," in-
an exceptionally high bar'' The ruling in West Virginia v. ous mandates of the Nu- conservatives such as Pax- cluding climate change
for agencies to meet, Duffy EPA "confirms that this case clear Waste Policy Act" to ton and Morrisey in the nu- "The woke left is going full
said, making it harder for implicates the major ques- store nuclear waste at a clear dispute. throttle in their mission to
government agencies to tions doctrine," Paxton's of- now-abandoned site at "My enemy is my friend" change every facet of
enact significant rules with- fice said in a letter to the Nevada's Yucca Mountain. when interests coincide, he American life, businesses
out triggering the major 5th U.S. Circuit Court of "Only Congress can decide said with a chuckle. and erode our democratic
questions doctrine. Appeals, which is hearing whether to abandon one "It's certainly a major ques- institutions to suit their liber-
That's problematic, Duffy the state's challenge in the of its primary strategies for tion,'' Taylor added, refer- al agenda," Morrisey said.
wrote in a blog post, "be- nuclear case. ensuring the completion ring to nuclear waste stor- "The Biden administration
cause Congress gener- In a political twist, environ- of a federal repository" for age. "Tens of thousands of wants to radically transform
ally writes laws in broad mental groups that oppose nuclear waste, Curran said. tons of nuclear waste" must the SEC and other agen-
terms such that they can the waste-storage plan Like Paxton and Morrisey, be disposed of "and there's cies run by unelected bu-
be adapted to changing also invoked the West Vir- Curran said federal agen- no authority in the Nuclear reaucrats and make them
problems and solutions by ginia case. cies appear to be going Waste Policy Act to license champions of climate
the technical experts work- "No federal agency is beyond their authority del- interim storage,'' he said. change, regardless of what
ing at agencies to address above the law," said Di- egated by Congress. "All they can license is a those agencies' functions
public health, safety and ane Curran, a lawyer for "I do think there are policy permanent repository'' at are.'' Biden, he added, "is
the environment.'' Beyond Nuclear, an advo- issues here that are enor- Yucca Mountain, a project creating a federal bureau-
In the Texas case, Paxton cacy group that opposes mous,'' she said in an inter- that has been mothballed cracy to suit his agenda."q

U.S.: Review of possibly privileged

Trump papers already over

By ERIC TUCKER tion," according to a court that might be protected
Associated Press filing Monday. by claims of legal privilege
WASHINGTON (AP) — The The filing from the depart- be set aside.
Justice Department has ment follows a judge's In revealing that the de-
completed its review of weekend order indicat- partment had completed
potentially privileged doc- ing that she was inclined its review of potentially
uments seized from former to grant the Trump legal privileged communica-
President Donald Trump's team's request for a special tions, law enforcement
Florida estate this month master who would oversee officials appeared to be
and has identified "a limit- the review of documents suggesting that the ap-
Pages from the affidavit by the FBI in support of obtaining a
search warrant for former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago ed set of materials that po- taken during the Aug. 8 pointment of a third-party
estate are photographed Friday, Aug. 26, 2022. tentially contain attorney- search of the Mar-a-Lago special master might now
Associated Press client privileged informa- estate and ensure that any be moot. q