Even on the scale of Roundhouse events, meetings of the interim Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Committee are hardly considered the height of hilarity. But legislators at today's meeting got a lot of mileage out of recent GOP debate snafus that seemed to crack up even the committee's stodgiest members.---
Today's committee meeting raised many difficult questions: What's the true price of cleaning up waste at Los Alamos National Lab? What will we do if a natural disaster releases radioactivity from spent fuel rods?
Oh—and what will happen if Texas Gov. Rick Perry gets the GOP nomination and wins in 2012—and shuts down the Department of Energy?
"Then what happens to cleanup at LANL?" State Rep. Brian Egolf asked the committee. "Does [the legal document governing LANL cleanup] have any requirements for the federal government to appropriate money to implement it? Can the federal government be sued for failing to provide funds for cleanup?"
The legislators laughed at Egolf's reference to Perry's debate performance last week, where he declared his intention to shut down three federal departments—then couldn't remember the third one. Although he was willing to take the suggestion of US Rep. Ron Paul, R-Tex, to shutter the Environmental Protection Agency, the name Perry was actually trying to recall was Department of Energy.
Meanwhile, New Mexico Environment Department general counsel Ryan Flynn proceeded, in a lawyerly way, to provide a straight answer.
"I'm not aware of any specific causes of action we would have," Flynn offered.
Later in the meeting, Rep. Thomas Anderson weighed in on the idea of DOE's demise.
"I'm not sure I'd do away with DOE, but I'm not so certain I wouldn't do away with NNSA," Anderson said. The National Nuclear Security Agency is a branch of DOE that administers LANL and other national defense sites across the country.
"I didn't see the use for that when it was created, and I don't see the use for it now," Anderson continued. "I can only get in deeper trouble here, but I have always had a problem with the creation of NNSA...how much money would we save if we did away with NNSA?"
After a beat, New Mexico Secretary of the Environment David Martin attempted to respond.
"Is that a rhetorical question?" Martin asked.
