Senate passes energy and water bill

> WASHINGTON (The Associated Press) - Jul 30 - By ANDREW TAYLOR
> Associated Press Writer
>
> The Senate on Wednesday passed a $34.3 billion energy spending
> bill that backs up President Barack Obama's promise to close the Yucca
> Mountain nuclear waste facility in Nevada.
>
> The bill, passed by a 85-9 vote, also covers hundreds of water
> projects being undertaken by the Army Corps of Engineers.
>
> The Yucca Mountain project 90 miles from Las Vegas was designed
> to hold 77,000 tons of waste, but has been strongly opposed by the
> Nevada delegation, which had been outgunned in its efforts to kill it.
>
> The move fulfills a campaign promise by Obama to close Yucca
> Mountain, which was 25 years and $13.5 billion in the making. It
> would, however, leave the country without a long-term solution for
> storing highly radioactive waste from nuclear power plants.
>
> The waste disposal problem has become worse since the federal
> government scrapped plans to open Yucca Mountain. Instead, radioactive
> fuel rods are now stored in large concrete and steel canisters on the
> grounds of nuclear plants around the country.
>
> The 1987 law requiring waste to be stored at Yucca Mountain law
> remains on the books, however, so the project could in theory be
> revived.
>
> The Senate also adopted an amendment by California Democratic
> Sens.
> Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer to allow for water transfers to
> help farmers in California's Central Valley suffering from severe
> drought conditions.
>
> "I view this as a breakthrough in the water wars in California,"
> Boxer said. "We were able to bring environmentalists together with the
> water districts."
>
> The provision would facilitate transfer of water from the eastern
> portion of the valley to the western part of the San Joaquin Valley
> particularly affected by a multiyear drought. Comparable language is
> in a House measure that passed two weeks ago.
>
> The underlying bipartisan measure has money for a wide variety of
> programs, including clean energy research, and has more than 600 so-
> called earmarks for lawmakers, mostly for Army Corps of Engineers
> projects.
>
> Unlike virtually every other spending bill moving through
> Congress for the 2010 budget year that begins Oct. 1, the measure
> essentially freezes spending for the programs covered by it. Most of
> the other spending bills contain spending increases far exceeding
> inflation.
>
> But the corps and the Energy Department got almost $60 billion in
> February's economic stimulus bill. The government has been slow to
> spend the money, with lawmakers especially unhappy over foot-dragging
> on water projects.
>
> Earlier Wednesday, transportation and housing programs received
> generous funding increases under draft legislation adopted by a Senate
> Appropriation panel.
>
> Grants for mass transit programs fare especially well, while
> Obama's high-speed rail program wouldn't get nearly the increases
> sought by the House in companion legislation that passed that chamber
> last week.
>
> The $117 billion transportation and housing measure is one of 12
> annual spending bills setting agency operating budgets for the fiscal
> year starting Oct. 1.
>
> For programs directly appropriated by the transportation and
> housing measure, there's a 23 percent increase over current levels -
> if the stimulus funding isn't included in calculations.
>
> The bill adds $480 million, or 26 percent to Obama's request for
> new or expanded grants to local governments for mass transit programs
> such as purchases of new cleaner-fueled buses. There's also a $500
> million increase above current levels for airport construction and
> improvements.
>
> But in providing $1.2 billion for high-speed rail programs, the
> Senate is falling well short of the House, which added $4 billion for
> the new program - on top of $8 billion provided in the stimulus bill.
> Obama requested $1 billion.
>
> And the bill provides Obama's request of $175 million for a
> much-criticized program that subsidizes rural air travel. The 40
> percent increase for the Essential Air Service would help entice small
> airlines to fly unprofitable routes to places such as Scottsbluff,
> Neb., Vernal, Utah, and Jamestown, N.Y.
>
> Many critics regard the program as a boondoggle that deeply
> subsidizes nearly empty flights. The Obama administration has promised
> reforms but has yet to send lawmakers any ideas on how to fix the
> program.
>
> The troubled Washington Metro system would also get a $150
> million capital infusion to make repairs and replace rail cars. The
> system has long-overdue maintenance needs and recently experienced a
> crash that killed nine people.
>
> The subsidy for the Amtrak passenger railroad, always a battle
> under the administration of George W. Bush, would be $1.5 billion, in
> line with current funding and Obama's request.
>
> Highway funds for the states, however, would remain flat under
> the measure, which caps spending from the Highway Trust Fund at $42.5
> billion, a
> 4 percent increase. The spending measure doesn't provide the highway
> money; it instead comes from gasoline taxes.
>
> But with gas tax revenues slumping, the trust fund is about to go
> broke. The Senate's move came as the House passed a bill to transfer
> $7
> billion from the general treasury to shore up the highway fund through
> Sept.
> 30.