During a Senate Energy Committee hearing last week, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) questioned Theodore Garrish, nominee to be Assistant Secretary of Energy, Nuclear Energy, about proposed nuclear waste repositories in Nevada.
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00:00That's okay. I'm sorry. I forgot. Senator Cortez Masto, that was very bad. You're up to bat. Thank you.
00:11Well, as chairman, I respect your position, so thank you. First of all, congratulations.
00:19Congratulations on your nominations. Welcome to the family members that are here. It's an exciting time.
00:24Thank you so much. Let me start with you, Mr. Garrish. I'm sure you're not surprised. I'm from Nevada.
00:31And this is a question I ask everyone from the Department of Energy, starting with Secretary Chris Wright, who provided the following QFR response during his nomination process.
00:43He said, the people of Nevada are not in favor of Yucca Mountain, and thus President Trump and I do not support Yucca Mountain as a waste repository.
00:54My question to you is, do you agree with this statement?
00:57Yes.
00:57Thank you. If confirmed, will you maintain efforts to establish a consent-based repository site selection process?
01:06I would like to speak to that, if I may.
01:08Please.
01:09I have been concerned over the word consent-based.
01:12I would prefer something that sounds more collaborative. In other words, I would like to collaborate with states, not the idea of consent suggests that you're doing something to the states that you don't want them, that they may not want.
01:29I would prefer to work collaboratively with the states and determine what states might be interested in this potential opportunity and whether there are things that could be added to it and benefits.
01:42And that is a process that we could enter over a period of time, and so I would propose initially to go with a system that would be more collaborative than consent-based.
01:55Can I ask, then, if there is a consent-based legislation and the consent is really taking into consideration whether the states, including Nevada, and the stakeholders agree to any nuclear waste being cited in their state?
02:10You would take that into consideration and would not force it upon them if they did not agree to it?
02:15Generally, I guess my belief is that if the state is not interested, then the collaborative process would probably terminate.
02:22Okay. And so that law and legislation, when we talk about consent-based and every state being treated equally, that should include the state of Nevada?
02:29Well, the legislation that I think that you're referring to, there is no administrative position on it at this time, so I'm not in a position to say one way or the other.
02:39The superseding legislation to allow all states to be treated equally, including the state of Nevada, you would support that?
02:47If there were superseding legislation?
02:48Well, I'm not in a position today to tell you legislatively, to give you a position on behalf of the administration.
02:57So, let me just say, previously the Secretary has said he would support it, so I'm a little confused why you wouldn't, but we can have further conversation about this.
03:08I am concerned about your position, however, but I need to get on to some other questions here, but let's have further conversation.
03:15I understand that we are scheduling a meeting, hopefully, that we can talk about this and the collaborative approach, and generally, your suggestions, I'm very interested.
03:26I guess, in terms of entering this position, if confirmed, I would really like to get your views as one of the first people I talk to on this.
03:35Good.
03:35I look forward to the conversation.
03:37Dr. Travnik, bless you.
03:39Dr. Travnik, you talked about the Colorado River.
03:42Thank you very much.
03:43This is a priority for all of the basin states along the Colorado River.
03:48We know that we have deadlines coming up.
03:53The guidelines for future water allocations expire in 2027.
04:00There's negotiations going on right now.
04:04The hope is that the basin states will come together and agree to the guidelines on how they're going to manage the Colorado River.
04:12My question to you is, if confirmed, how will you prioritize this process to ensure that the basin can reach that necessary consensus and avoid litigation before time runs out?
04:26Thank you, Senator, for the question.
04:27Yes, as discussed earlier, Colorado River is going to be front and center.
04:31If confirmed, it will be one of my top priorities to hit the ground running on right away.
04:35We know that we've got to work with the seven basin states.
04:38It needs to be consensus-driven, state-led.
04:41We don't want this to be decided by a judge.
04:44So it's going to be my top priority.
04:46And I look forward to working with you.
04:47I know all of the basin states we do as well.
04:49One final question, let me ask you, because this came to my attention.
04:54Just recently, talking with my electric co-ops who are concerned about hydropower from the dam, Hoover Dam, as well as Glen Canyon Dam.
05:02But let me just talk a little bit about Hoover Dam.
05:05In Congress, we previously made significant investments through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act to improve water infrastructure and to mitigate drought conditions along the river.
05:18And you talked a little bit about that.
05:20Unfortunately, many of those funds are currently halted.
05:23Additionally, Colorado River contract customers have been working with the Bureau of Reclamation to receive some of those bipartisan infrastructure law funds to install widehead turbines that can operate at low levels and continue to generate the hydropower that my companies and Nevadans need.
05:45If these turbines are not installed and production generation drops due to the low water level that has been set by the Bureau of Reclamation, customers in Nevada will be forced to replace these hydropower resources with more expensive power, impacting power prices for rural communities in Nevada.
06:04And so my question to you is, can you commit to me to work to release those funds that were allocated by Congress in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, that addresses those needs, specifically those projects that we need along the Colorado River?
06:26Would you commit to working with me to release those funds?
06:29Senator, thank you for the question.
06:30So as it relates to hydropower, right, we know that Reclamation is the second largest producer of hydropower.
06:35It's extremely important.
06:37It's extremely important to have those low costs related to the energy production as well.
06:41So as we look at those different funds, appreciate the overview related to what those funds have been sitting and supposed to go towards.
06:49So we've confirmed, committed to looking into that just to understand more of what it is and how that could help.
06:57Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
06:57Thank you, Senator Cortez-Mazdo.
07:01Ms. Byer, let's start with you.
07:03We've got about 700.