I don't know how many of you have kept up with, or have any interest in, this story, but in a surprise move a couple of weeks ago Texas decided not to let a group of New England states dump their low-level radioactive waste in dirt-poor, mostly Spanish-speaking Hudspeth County, just east of El Paso on the Mexican border. One of the NE states involved in this was Vermont, whose allegedly progressive Representative, Bernie Saunders, campaigned to have the state's toxic crap buried near a major fault line in one of the most economically-disadvantaged areas of the country. I have been out of the news loop a bit in the past couple weeks, so I did not catch wind of Texas' decision until yesterday when I talked to a friend of mine in Austin. I lived in Austin until just last year, and the consensus was that the state was going to allow this waste dump to happen because of the great pay-off and because there was no one to defend the people of Hudspeth county. It's very heartening to hear this news, and surprising because the agency that made the decision was comprised of Shrub Bush appointees.
My friend seemed to think that at least one of the reasons this decision was made was because of Mexico, which was hopping mad that the US would store its waste so close to the border. Certain Mexican government officials lobbied hard both with the state and US governments. My friend said that they also organized several rallies and demonstrations, which were well-attended by Texas environmentalists and activists, in Austin to protest the proposed dumpsite. And who said there were no advantages to NAFTA ;-)
But seriously, I am going to do some online searching for this story and will post what I find to the list, if anyone is interested. My historical and political relation of the context to this is not so great, so I will see if I can find something better.
eric