President Bush scored a victory yesterday when the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved his plan to store highly radioactive nuclear waste beneath Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, but he was challenged by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle on other environmental issues. Reps. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) and Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) introduced legislation supported by 172 other House members to bar logging and road construction on much of the country’s national forest lands, backing the roadless rule that was drafted under Clinton but is opposed by the current administration. And today, Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) will introduce legislation to reinstate an expired corporate tax that funneled more than $1 billion a year into the Superfund for environmental cleanups. Industry opposes the tax, and President Bush has so far declined to seek its reauthorization.
