Maybe you’ve seen the news: Gov. Herbert is going to sit down with HEAL about foreign waste. This is good.
I’m not jumping for joy though, because his position on EnergySolutions' “Cash for
Trash Deal” has been neither consistently, nor clearly communicated.

In short friends, I have doubts.

I’ve been encouraged by things that the Governor and his staff have said. For example:

I have no plans to change anything Governor Huntsman has done with regards to EnergySolutions
-Governor Gary Herbert (Salt Lake Tribune 5/18/09)

We have been very consistent on saying that we don't think we want to have foreign waste imported into Utah.
-Governor Gary Herbert (Salt Lake Tribune 5/18/09)

Governor Herbert remains committed to the federal lawsuit which is currently pending before the 10th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and has no interest in the storage of any foreign waste in the State.
-Susan Deakin Constituent Services (Email rec’d 9/9/09 Note: Susan seems to control the Governor's email account) 

What I can tell you is that Governor Herbert's position on this issue has not changed. He remains opposed to the importation of foreign, low-level nuclear waste to Utah and is committed to the appeal that is now pending before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
-Spokeswoman Angie Welling (Salt Lake Tribune 9/12/09)

While at the same time recent rumors, and changing statements from EnergySolutions concern me, and I am mortified by these excerpts from an interview on Channel 4:

[Gov. Herbert:] "It’s not a black and white issue. People get very emotional about this thing and as we become emotional, rational thought sometimes goes out the window..."

[ABC-4’s Chris] Vanocur: "You are in a position, of course, where you could end some of these rumors by saying absolutely not, there's no way we're going to do the deal."

Gov. Herbert: "I can commit that the thing I will do is what's in the best interests of Utah moving forward.But I'll have all the facts moving forward before I make any decision."

Vanocur: "If I was a reporter writing a story about that answer I'd probably say something like the governor didn't say no."

Gov. Herbert: "Well, the governor didn't say no because who knows what tomorrow may bring."

Is he just telling people what they want to hear so that they will quiet down?

I’m worried.

I'm worried because I don't know what will happen at this meeting.
Will Governor Herbert hide behind this rhetoric of “this issue is not black and white” and getting “all the facts moving forward” and meet with us just so thatn he can say he listened to opposing viewpoints?
Or will he listen to our reasonable concerns about our Utah’s right to regulate what gets dumped here, and about the profound precedent taking waste from Italy will have on the future?

Is he saying that the Utah Radiation Control Board, Representatives Chaffetz and Matheson, the North West Compact, and Gov. Huntsman all let their emotions throw reason out the window? I’m also interested in what reasonable/rational benefit there is for the state in importing waste if money is really "irrelevant" as he says.
 
The question Governor Gary Herbert must answer, not just for HEAL but for posterity, is this:

Will Utah become the world’s nuclear waste dump on Gary Herbert’s watch?