The Utah Legislature, or perhaps a voter referendum, should decide whether EnergySolutions can dump foreign low-level radioactive waste in Utah.

So believes GOP 2nd Congressional District candidate Bill Dew, who added it should be a state's rights issue.

During a KUED Ch. 7 debate with Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, Dew modified a previous stand on the low-level waste issue — he said in an earlier debate that he supported EnergySolutions' plan.

Matheson said the U.S. Constitution clearly states that foreign commerce belongs in the purview of the Congress. "No other country takes such radioactive waste, and we shouldn't either."

Dew's answer "is naive," said Matheson, who leads his GOP challenger in recent public opinion polls. Utah is taking internal low-level waste from 36 states now, and ultimately will take it from all 50, Matheson said.

There is a limited amount of space for low-level nuclear waste at EnergySolutions' Clive site in Tooele County. And the United States shouldn't allow any of that storage capacity to be used for such waste from foreign countries, Matheson added.

Matheson vowed to fight to outlaw foreign importation of low-level nuclear waste.

Let Utahns or the Legislature vote, said Dew, a retired homebuilder. "I support EnergySolutions, as long as the people support that," Dew said.

Dew also said he's not convinced that the Earth's climate is getting warmer, or just going through a natural swing in temperatures. "I've read articles both ways. And man is not responsible for this," Dew said.

Matheson said the science is clear — the Earth is warming and humans are playing a part in it.

"We have to produce more energy in America," Dew said. Some people are using global warming "to shut down energy production here, costing us jobs."

Dew favors increasing all kinds of energy production, from new coal-fired electrical plants, nuclear power plants, oil drilling, more oil shale production, more wind and renewable energy sources.

Instead of complaining about coal-fired plants here, the Sierra Club and other environmental groups should go to U.S. coal-fired plant owners "and hang a gold medal around their necks," thanking them for producing electricity so much more cleanly than coal-fired plants in China and other nations, Dew said.

Matheson said he does not support a moratorium on coal-fired plants. Rather, the United States must immediately push "carbon sequestration" technology — like pumping carbon dioxide into the ground to keep it from escaping into the atmosphere.

"The federal government can give grants and loans" to jump-start clean-coal operations, Matheson said.

Matheson said he is an independent Democrat — in part because Democrats stack his family tree. "My party encompasses a wide range of issues and ideas — frankly more than does the Republican Party."

"I'm an old-guard Republican," said Dew, who favors low taxes, low government spending and less government. "My opponent has been successful in walking down the middle of the road. But he has still voted 88 percent of the time with Democrats in Congress. I say let the people (of the 2nd District) decide if they want to vote with the Democrats 88 percent of the time — or would they rather (their congressman) vote for family values."

The debate will air on KUED Ch. 7 at 7:30 tonight and at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com