WILSON EYES LAWSUIT TO PROTECT SAVANNAH RIVER SITE JOBS
S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson is preparing a legal challenge in the hopes of blocking U.S. President Barack Obama’s plan to shutter a costly Department of Energy (DOE) project in the Palmetto State.
As FITS reported last month, Obama’s administration is looking to do away with the mixed oxide fuel (MOX) facility at the Savannah River Site – which would cost South Carolina at least 1,800 jobs.
Obama zeroed out funding for the facility in his latest budget – and his administration recently dispatched “shutdown specialist” David Darugh to the site. Darugh previously managed the termination of another massive failed government boondoggle, Texas’ Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) project.
The MOX facility is a monument to government ineptitude.
Last month, FITS reported on the cost overruns (and total lack of accountability) associated with this project – which is supposed to turn weapons grade plutonium into fuel for nuclear reactors. This MOX facility was supposed to have been completed in 2007 at a cost of $1.6 billion to taxpayers – but nearly $4 billion later it still isn’t done, and the total tab for the project is now nearing $10 billion.
None of that is stopping U.S. Senators Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham – and U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson – from fighting for the project, though.
In a letter dated March 7, the three lawmakers ask for Wilson to “explore any legal avenues the state may have to address this injustice.”
Actually, the letter was addressed to S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley – which is surprising considering the governor’s low opinion of workers at the site.
“Down on River Site, they were hiring a few hundred people, and when we sat down and talked to them … they said of everybody they interviewed, half of them failed a drug test, and of the half that was left, of that 50 percent, the other half couldn’t read and write properly,” Haley told a group of Lexington County, S.C. Rotarians in September 2011.
Challenged to provide documentation for this bizarre claim, Haley initially vowed to do that … but later backed down completely.
The governor’s office isn’t expected to have any involvement in the MOX case – which makes her receipt of the letter somewhat unusual.
Two theories have emerged to explain it …
According to sources close to Graham, Haley had to receive the letter because one of its signatories was Joe Wilson – Alan Wilson’s father.
“They wanted to avoid any appearance of undue influence,” one source close to Graham told FITS.
Other sources say Haley’s office insisted that the letter be addressed to her because it involved jobs – and the governor didn’t want anyone else taking credit for safeguarding them.
Sheesh …
Anyway, Wilson has fought the Obama administration in court on several prior occasions – winning a battle in district court over the Palmetto State’s voter identification laws but losing (along with many of his fellow Attorneys General) on the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Obamacare decisions.
We’ll see how he does defending this boondoggle …
46 comments
Scott, Graham and Wilson (and Wilson fils) want to keep this boondoggle operating?
What hypocrites.
People living in that area laugh about the plant’s employees goofing off, some laying down sheets of newspaper in the bathrooms and sleeping for hours.
All four of these politicians need replacement, like flashlight batteries.
need replacement
——–
…excreted.
I know a few people who work there and they claim to pull down big bucks for drinking coffee and reading the newspapers.
The “goofing off”. Is this based on your first hand observation or is third or more hand hearsay?
Joe Wilson is a drunkard and a liar.
So, you know him too!
Totally on target!
I know the devil spawn when I see them.
This is a real hoot. Here we have panicked Republicans demanding that the federal government dump yet more billions into the $30-billion plutonium fuel MOX boondoggle. MOX is the pet boondoggle of $enator Lind$ey Graham and Repre$entative Joe Wil$on, who will do anything to transfer more of our money into the failed MOX project. What happened to the whole fiscal conservative thing claimed by Republicans? And now they want the state government to waste more of our money in pursuing a groundless lawsuit?! I look forward to the circus that will be with the State of South Carolina trying to sue about a mismanaged federal project dependent on big spenders in Congress. As for Russia, the plutonium disposition agreement isn’t a treaty (so it isn’t law) and a clause in the agreement says the terms are dependent on funding.
When will the above-named politicians ever demand accountability for the travesty that MOX has become and demand some heads roll at MOX contractor $haw AREVA MOX $ervices at DOE/NN$A? That is proving to be a long wait….
You’re a real crusader against MOX aren’t you Tom, trolling the internet to copy and paste your comments.
MOX is a boondoggle, they should be reactivating the Fast Breeder Reactor site in Barnwell and moving forward with “burning” waste to create fuel, however Jimmy Carter was an idiot and caused us to lose out on one of the best chances we had for energy independence.
Barnwell was to be a nuclear fuel repossessing facility not a breeder reactor.
You are correct. I was typing to fast and reading too much at the same time. The breeder reactor was to be located at Clinch River Tennessee. Both were part of the same project and both were needless ended.
Never part of same project.
Barnwell was a venture between Gulf Oil and Allied Chemical.
The “fast breeder” site was at Clinch River, Tennessee.
It is all about the money. When the state (Wilson and Haley) challenges the Obama administration they make themselves available for donations from various parties and press attention. It is a politicians dream.
In any event, Haley will claim these job as “saved” if the jobs are kept, and she won’t subtract the jobs from her totals if they are lost. So, again, it is about the donations and the media attention, not the issues at hand.
Amen!
Oh yeah: And how many billions does your lord-god Obama rake in from the ultra-rich for rendering the average father or mother UNEMPLOYED. As he has done to millions…
Families can’t buy food or clothes, because the elites like Obama use poor South Carolinians to play political games, and get fatter, swilling champs and feasting
Dude, unemployment is at 6.7% – get a grip.
Yeah, when they put everybody on PT, under 30 hours for Obamacare, it makes dumb@$$#$, like you, think the rate is actually lower…But look at salaries and production, that has decreased so much under your lord-god Obama.
But the F*#king idiots, like you, already voted for democrats…People who are smarter than you will know that they have been duped, no matter how stupid you are…
Wilson won (?) the voter suppression lawsuit? In what universe?
Typical Obama voter…Extremely Ignorant, but you run your mouth anyway.
Wilson’s has a great track record vs Obama. Let’s keep it going.
As for the jobs: Gov’t will waste the money regardless.
SC Needs those jobs. Otherwise the money goes to pay for IRS targeting or spying on Americans. Rather pay my neighbor w/ the money I send to the gov’t.May as well hire South Carolinians.
Guns or Butter.
A job or food stamps…
South Carolina leaders = Job
Obama = Food Stamps
I know what I’d decide.
South Carolina leaders = Job
Jobs for them and theirs, maybe.
It’s hilarious to watch you delude yourself.
Boeing, Amazon, Continental, Nephron, Bridgeport…..
Are you so F*#*king stupid, or bent on Obama hate and Revenge, to think only insiders get ALL those jobs????
Boeing was before Haley.
Amazon was opposed by Haley herself.
The others? *golf clap* Of course, we’ll never know just how much of those deals were started before Haley, or how much influence she really had, but eh.
How many -left- SC under Haley?
Can you ask Haley if she can get someone other than her kid hired to run a gift shop?
So you give the current leaders NO credit for all the jobs…but you ADMIT they are here…
And: you hold Obama in NO WAY responsible for trying to TAKE food out of the mouths of South Carolinians, by thwarting job growth..
All blame on those you hate…and no accountability for the bumbling failure you worship.
Yep: You are a full-fledged member of the Dumb@$$, Liberal Club…
Convert the plant to a dildo plant. Glow in the dark glass dildos with automatic warming. My ass is already twitching. Make it so Lindsey.
Hey FITS: You’re ASLEEP at the Wheel…Obamacare horror stories abound…
OK Man Loses Insurance Due to Obamacare, Owes $100K in Bills…
900,000 Obamacare ‘enrollees’ still haven’t paid for coverage?
WSJ: Secret Mandate Exemption…
HHS: We Lack ‘Statutory Authority’ to Extend Open Enrollment Period…
you forgot a few
Syria Has Chemical Weapons Say Sources In Khan al-Assal Posthumously
Syria Missed Deadline To Destroy Chemical Weapons, Assad Says Eat Me
Crimea Kaput, Putin Shows Obama Who Is The Man
FITS’ Worse nightmare is manifesting. Democrat lies and failure have caught up w/ them, and no amount of blaming the GOP will stop their slaughter in Nov…
The House will be retained and increased w/ Conservatives, and the Senate looks ripe to take…as Obama’s numbers plummet…
And Obama is just compounding his folly by reacting to rejection of Obamacare, like the spoiled, entitled brat, he is….
It’s getter funner by the day, and FITS is $#!**ing all over himself w/ fear….Love It!!!!!..
Another pandering SC pol who will waste the taxpayers money on a case destined to go nowhere or be lost in court.
Hey FITS: Obamacare Enrollment Down 18% in Feb; HHS: ‘We Don’t Think We Had a Decline’ –
Obama is Crashing like you hope a Boeing 777 will….Why are you IGNORING it?
See more at: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/obamacare-enrollment-down-18-feb-hhs-we-dont-think-we-had-decline#sthash.D1fBlYFv.dpuf
“Obama is Crashing like you hope a Boeing 777 will….Why are you IGNORING it?”
That missing plane from Malaysia was a 777…hmmmm…
It must have been manufactured in Wash. St. by union thugs, or you know FITS would be trying to indict Haley for it…
1800 jobs lost. Presently there are over 1300 construction craft workers on this job,working 60 hours per week.
All the craft workers are UNION.
I thought NIMRATA mandated no unions in South Carolina.
NIMRATA and the TEA Party have harped on budget cuts, here is a project prime for shut down.
Suppose this is a reverse NIMBY position.
Many of those worker moved here for the jobs also.
Absolutely.
If a project is Federal, then the Feds call the rules not SC. Thus the Feds can dictate the use of unionized labor.
True.
I just can’t resist any chance to get a dig at NIMRATA.
“None of that is stopping U.S. Senators Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham – and U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson – from fighting for the project, though.”
…and this is a perfect example of why Republicans have almost no credibility. They supposedly want budget cutting yet do shit like this.
This is not a defense of Dems/progressives or whatever they call themselves now either.
Republicans have no credibility:
IT BEGINS: GOP WINS FL CONGRESSIONAL SEAT…
Democrats ‘have reason to worry’…
FLASHBACK: Race Dems Can’t Afford to Lose…
Axelrod ‘explains’…
NATIONAL JOURNAL: Republican wave looks more likely…
WSJ/NBCNEWS POLL: Obama hits new low…
GALLUP: Americans not concerned about climate change, immigration reform…
Are you an actual Dumb@$$…or just acting like one to turn on FITS and his @$$-kissers???
Go suck some Santorum, metaphorically speaking.
sue, sue, sue, sue…what the tort reform lovin’, frivolous law suit hatin’, meaningless political gesture lovin’ GOPers love better than anything…particularly when the poor, besotted taxpayer is paying for it.
Gov. Haley will get burned if she gets sucked into the MOX mess by Lindsey Graham and Joe Wilson. They are in large part responsible for the failed MOX project as they funded it with a blank check and held nobody accountable. Haley should throw her attorney general (oh, who happens to be the son of big-spender Joe Wilson) from the MOX train wreck.