Lobby Watch: Simmons' Campaign Money Predicted Nuke Waste Vote Outcome

A review of Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons' campaign contributions proved to be a reliable prognosticator of how representatives would vote on opening his Andrews County nuclear dump to waste from around the nation.


Find out who took Simmons' money and who voted to give him a nuclear monopoly.

Lobby Watch:Nuclear-Waste Kingpin Helps Anti-Lawsuit PAC Raise $6.9 Million

Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR) PAC raised a record $6.9 million in the 2010 election cycle with help from its No. 1 donor: nuclear-waste kingpin Harold Simmons. To reduce the cost of negligently harming other people, the PAC took 12 cents of every dollar it raised from Simmons. Not coincidentally, this billionaire is imposing unprecedented liabilities on Texans by importing staggering volumes of toxic and radioactive waste into West Texas.

Lobby Watch also finds that many of TLR's biggest new donors are righteously litigious dudes.

Read the new Lobby Watch.

Nuke Waste Commission Votes to Open Texas Dump

The Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission met in Andrews, Texas yesterday and voted to open the nuclear waste site operated by Harold Simmons to waste from around the country--and possibly the world.

Read the story at the Austin American-Statesman.

Judge Halts Vote on Nuke Dump

A Travis County state district judge on Thursday sided with environmentalists and temporarily halted plans to allow a West Texas radioactive waste disposal site to accept waste from an additional three dozen states.

Read the full story in the Austin American-Statesman.

Lobby Watch:Simmons Raises Stakes at Nuke Dump

Before he contributed $500,000 to Governor Perry in the second half of 2010, Dallas billionaire Harold Simmons previously gave Perry another $620,000. This $1.1 million pile of cash is dwarfed by the enormity of what Simmons demands in return. Soon six Perry appointees will vote on Simmons' application to turn Texas into the nation's low-level nuclear waste dump.

Read the new Lobby Watch:
Don't Trash Texas--Unless You Pay Perry $1.1 Million

TPJ Fights Expansion of Nuke Waste Site

TPJ joined dozens of activists to oppose a plan to allow nuke waste from 36 states to be buried in Texas at a public hearing before the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission yesterday.

View TPJ's testimony.
Visit our friends at Nuke Free Texas for more information on the issue.

Lobby Watch: Nuclear Compact with the Devil?

How can Governor Perry's appointees regulate the flow of out-of-state nuclear waste into a West Texas dump that happens to be owned by a huge gubernatorial donor?

Learn how to stop worrying and read TPJ's Lobby Watch.

How Midland Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Corporate Dole

In 2001 Midland's conservative voters swallowed concerns about government economic planning to approve a tax to promote economic development and diversification. The Midland Development Corp. has awarded millions of tax dollars to handpicked companies to diversify Midland's dependence on oil, however, these big-ticket investments have been spectacular flops. Now the agency increasingly invests in the booming oil industry--which needs no government aid.

Read the report

Gulf Coast Polluters Dominate School Tax Breaks (Part 2 in a 2 part series)

Texas school districts have awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in property tax breaks under a 2001 law. The law was ostensibly designed to lure businesses to develop in districts with low property tax revenue. In practice, the biggest tax breaks are going to oil refineries and petrochemical plants to expand existing facilities within property-rich districts on the north Gulf Coast.


Read the report

Lobby Watch:Texas Becomes the Nation's Lone-Star Nuclear Dump

Rarely have so few given away so much for so little. Most states would be shocked if their legislatures agreed to serve as the nation’s default dump site for low-level nuclear waste. The closest thing to shock here, however, is how little Texas politicians have received in exchange for taking nuclear waste rejected by every other state.
Read the Lobby Watch