WASHINGTON, DC - Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Environment and the Economy Subcommittee Chairman John Shimkus (R-IL) today welcomed the draft report from the Blue Ribbon Commission on Americas Nuclear Future. However, the committee leaders were disappointed that President Obama prohibited the commission from considering the Yucca Mountain repository in their report on the nations long-term nuclear future.Upton and Shimkus look forward to carefully examining the Blue Ribbon Commission's recommendations in the coming weeks.

Chairmen Upton and Shimkus made the following statement:

"The report is a byproduct of the untoward politicization of our nations nuclear waste program. There is no more glaring indictment than the Commission's recommendation to relieve the Obama appointed politicians at DOE of their legal duties and instead place them in an independent body overseen by scientists instead of political yes-men.

"We have an urgent responsibility to the American people to provide a long-term solution to our nations stockpiling nuclear waste.After billions of dollars spent and decades of research, lets start listening to the nuclear scientists and not the political scientists and embrace the Yucca Mountain repository as a responsible hallmark of our nuclear future."

Despite the Obama administration's rush to terminate the Yucca Mountain repository, there remains widespread support for the project. Earlier this month the House of Representatives reaffirmed its support on behalf of the Yucca Mountain repository, voting by a veto-proof 297-130 to increase funding for continued NRC review of the DOE licensing application.