Compare and Contrast

Two Salt Lake newspapers ran articles today on whether hotter radioactive waste will come into the State. One ran a fairly dispassionate article, laying out a firm's proposal to import B&C waste to Utah, suggesting that it is not likely to receive approval. The other also stated that a new proposal is on the table, though it does not mention that the proposal has a snowball's chance. Instead, the second article takes the angle that Gov-elect Huntsman is "hedging" on campaign promises. The "hedge" goes something like this: even though he concludes the waste won't come in and that more aggressive actions might actually jeopardize the State's legal standing, he hedges by not taking those more aggressive, possibly detrimental actions.

Waste policy is a difficult and complex arena. Because of the money involved in disposal, lawyers lurk at every corner waiting for a misstep. Having chaired the Waste Policy Task Force and wanting as much as anyone to keep B & C waste out of the State, I don't see that Gov-elect Huntsman hedged on anything. The interesting thing about both articles is that, while discussing the hypothetical proposal, they missed the newsworthy fact that a deal was signed earlier this week to sell Envirocare.