Bush Junior clone Gov. Rick Perry handed out a single license to one Texas billionaire to build a nuclear waste dump above the Ogallala Aquifer that provides fresh water for nearly 2 million people in the southwestern US. Naturally, that billionaire, Harold Simmons, has contributed over a million dollars to Perry’s campaigns. Sure the stuff is radioactive for 10,000 years, long after Rick and his rich buddy will be sucking on hot coals in the Inner Circle of Hell, but what if there is an earthquake in the near future, or shoddy construction work leads to a crack that leaks radioactive poison into the ground water? Under a deregulated President Perry government, those water drinkers would just have to kiss their asses goodbye. What a unique way to get rid of the peasants, atheists, Democrats and immigrants Perry hates. If some Republicans die along with them, it’s their own fault for not buying bottled water from a safe source. Read the disgusting story below:
Most Americans have never heard of Harold Simmons, despite his fantastic wealth, because he wisely keeps his head low.by Joe Conason
AlterNet, Aug. 29, 2011Like so many Republican officials of the tea party persuasion, Rick Perry despises the Environmental Protection Agency—a feeling he has expressed repeatedly in speeches, lawsuits, legislation and even a book titled “Fed Up!” Perhaps that is only natural for the governor of Texas, a “dirty energy” state where the protection of air, water and human health rank well below the defense of oil company profits for most politicians.
But Perry has at least one other reason for smacking down those bureaucrats so eagerly. When environmental regulators do their job properly, that can mean serious trouble for Perry’s largest political donors.
The outstanding example is Harold Simmons, a Dallas mega-billionaire industrialist who has donated well over a million dollars to Perry’s campaign committees recently. With Perry’s eager assistance—and despite warnings from Texas environmental officials—Simmons has gotten approval to build an enormous radioactive waste dump on top of a crucial underground water supply.
“We first had to change the law to where a private company can own a license, and we did that,” Simmons boasted in 2006, after the Texas Legislature and the governor rubber-stamped initial legislation and approvals for the project. “Then we got another law passed that said (the state) can only issue one license. Of course, we were the only ones that applied.”
Read the rest here.
Copyright 2011 Joe Conason & Creators.com.