ABSTRACT
The search for scientific bases for confronting problems of social policy is bound to fail, because of the nature of these problems. Demographic shifts in our population will undoubtedly cause new problems to emerge. Economic shifts and climate change are contributing to population movements. The mainstream of land use planning is, thus, essentially local, with sensitivity to local opinion and the avoidance of hardship to individuals. Zoning meets these narrow concerns neatly, and it specifically provides a safety valve with a system of variances in cases of hardship. Conflicts will always surface when governments attempt to regulate the use of private property. The storage of nuclear waste continues to be the subject of much debate. The State of Nevada rejected the recommendation to use Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository. Newly elected President Joe Biden has been a long-time foe of using Yucca Mountain for the storage of nuclear fuel and waste.
