The Supreme Court on Wednesday debated how to dispose of the nation’s nuclear waste as Texas tried to convince the justices to block a storage site near the state’s border with New Mexico. Texas and a Texas-based oil and gas extraction organization argued the Nuclear Regulatory Commission lacked the authority to approve a site to store up to 5,

The case examines whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has the authority to grant a license to Interim Storage Partners, Inc., to proceed with plans to construct a storage facility in West Texas. The NRC has also approved a license for a group that intends to build a similar project deep underground in southeastern New Mexico.