Energy Secretary Rick Perry made a surprise visit to the nation’s nuclear waste dump in Nevada on Monday, raising the ire of some of the state’s Democratic delegation for not informing them.
Rep. Dina Titus, a Democrat from the state, blasted Perry for not telling her or other state officials that he was visiting the contentious nuclear waste site, which President Obama tried to close as a favor to Democratic leader Harry Reid.
The unexpected visit comes just weeks after Texas sued the administration to open the site.
“Less than two weeks after Rick Perry’s friends in the Texas attorney general’s office sued the federal government to revive the failed Yucca Mountain waste dump and President Trump requested funding for it, I am troubled that the new Energy Secretary is visiting the site without informing members of the Nevada Congressional Delegation,” said Titus.
Titus explained that earlier this year she had invited President Trump himself to send a delegation to visit the site. She wanted the administration to “meet with experts who have spent years studying why the project imperils our state and nearly every congressional district in the country,” according to a statement.
The Trump administration had not acknowledged the invitation, which she sent in a letter back in January. More importantly, Trump has not acknowledged “the fact that Nevadans do not want a project that has dangerous implications for the environment, economy, and security of the region,” she said. Southern Nevada “is not a wasteland, and I will continue to fight to protect it from becoming a dangerous dumping ground.”
In the run-up to the visit, Perry has been meeting with a variety of industry executives and innovators in the last week, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who has been pushing the development of a small nuclear power reactor called the TerraPower project.
“We had a very special guest at @Energy Department HQ today,” Perry tweeted. “Thanks for the insightful discussion, @BillGates!”
Perry said on Friday that he continued a series of meetings with industry officials to discuss energy infrastructure development.
“Big week discussing #AmericanEnergy and infrastructure development with leading energy companies,” he tweeted.
