[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 48 (Thursday, March 25, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H1781]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        H.R. 45 IS A FAIRY TALE

  (Mr. GIBBONS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, April 1, April Fool's Day, is less than a 
week away, literally just around the corner. But the jokes, yes, the 
jokes are already here.
  The nuclear power lobbyists are trying to pull the wool over the eyes 
of Members of Congress. They want us to believe that if we support H.R. 
45, the nuclear waste problems at 72 nuclear power plants will just 
disappear, puff, gone. Well, I am not sure how many of my colleagues 
believe in fairy tales. But that is exactly what it is, a fairy tale of 
monumental proportions.
  The truth is that there are 72 nuclear waste sites around the country 
and if H.R. 45 is passed, we would have a total of, let us see, 73, not 
less but more. And it would take 30 to 40 years and a thousand mobile 
Chernobyls going through your neighborhood to take this waste to the 
site.
  Let us not get caught up in the April Fool's joke or succumb to the 
attitude of ``Don't worry, be happy.'' Remember something my mother 
told me. When the circus is in town, beware of the clown.
  H.R. 45 is nothing more than a fairy tale, and I am sure my 
colleagues heard it before. Do not believe it again.

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