Yucca Mountain News Clips
Wednesday, September 8, 2004
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State of Nevada
September 08, 2004
CONTACT: Marta Adams (775) 684-1237
Tom Sargent (775) 684-1114
cell (775) 720-1870
sargent@ag.state.nv.us
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: September 7, 2004
NEVADA FILES SUIT OVER YUCCA WASTE SHIPMENT PLAN
previously rejected plan increases health, safety, terror risk
Carson City-Attorney General Brian Sandoval today announced the filing by Nevada of a new lawsuit against the Department of Energy ("DOE") broadly challenging its transportation plan for nuclear waste shipments to the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Many, if not most, of those shipments would go through Las Vegas. The suit contends DOE's plan violates the National Environmental Policy Act, the Interstate Commerce Act, and regulations set by the Council on Environmental Quality, the Surface Transportation Board, and DOE itself. The case was filed in the D.C. Court of Appeals, the same court that in July ruled favorably for the state on another case challenging Yucca.
DOE's transportation plan, announced April 8, 2004, selects a 318-mile route from Caliente, Nevada, to Yucca Mountain in which to construct what would be the longest new rail line in the United States in over 80 years. To make the rail shipments, DOE selected a new national mode of transport that it had not previously analyzed: loading light-weight truck casks onto rail cars and shipping them by the thousands cross-country. DOE's previous analyses had assumed rail shipments would involve only newly designed, larger, and heavier rail casks. The larger casks would have sharply reduced the number of shipments, and are less vulnerable in accidents or terrorist attacks.
"It's uncanny how DOE manages to do precisely the wrong thing," Sandoval said. "With no public input whatsoever, DOE chose a new transport mode that DOE itself had rejected for study because it is the most expensive by a billion dollars, the most impractical, and has the highest health and safety risks."
Sandoval is also challenging DOE's right to play the role of lead agency in the new rail project, contending the law requires the federal Surface Transportation Board to assume that role. "DOE didn't even contact the Board before plunging ahead with the largest new rail project in decades," Sandoval said. "Given DOE's track record at building anything, the Board is a far better agency than DOE to run a project of this magnitude. It is also far less biased."
Finally, Sandoval is challenging DOE's failure to evaluate actual environmental impacts and land use conflicts within the one-mile wide swath of land along the 318-mile Caliente Route. "No landowners were contacted or given any notice that DOE was about to appropriate their land," Sandoval said, noting that DOE has already applied to the Bureau of Land Management to have set aside 308,600 specifically itemized acres for the new track. "DOE stood the mandatory review process on its head," he added. "First, DOE unilaterally proclaimed a new route, then it applied to withdraw the land, and only now has it announced it will begin to evaluate the environmental impacts along that route. The whole point of environmental review is to study the impacts before you make the decision, not after."
The State is asking the court to compel DOE to withdraw its transport decisions, issue a supplemental environmental impact statement, solicit public comment, and bring the Surface Transportation Board to the project as the lead or co-lead agency.
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Las Vegas SUN
September 08, 2004
State sues over Yucca rail line
By Suzanne Struglinski
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Nevada sued the Energy Department once again today, this time over its plan to build a new rail line in the state to move spent nuclear fuel to Yucca Mountain.
Attorney General Brian Sandoval claims the department did not follow federal environmental policy and other laws when it proposed the 319-mile railroad through through Lincoln County and it is shutting out important outside regulators on the project. It filed the suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, the same court that last month threw out the nuclear waste storage project's 10,000-year radiation standard.
The department announced its intention in April to use the its " Caliente Corridor" route to move nuclear waste to Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Caliente was one of five routes proposed for a railroad because no rail line exists in the state to move waste containers to the mountain. The department said last December it preferred the mostly rail option over the mostly truck alternative for shipping the waste to Yucca.
Several public meetings took place throughout the state earlier this year to help the department gather information on what it should include in a draft environmental study to be completed next year on the Caliente route but Nevada claims the whole process was done out of order.
"The whole point of environmental review is to study the impacts before you make the decision, not after," Sandoval said.
In the suit, Nevada claims the department violated the National Environmental Policy Act, a federal law that requires an environmental analysis of federal projects before they are finalized.
Sandoval said the department did not contact land owners in advance to let them know their land would be used in the construction project, even though the department asked the Bureau of Land Management for more than 300,000 acres to study. He said the department proclaimed the route, applied for the land but only now is evaluating the environmental impacts.
Nevada also claims the department moved ahead with the largest railroad construction project in 80 years without consulting the Surface Transportation Board, the federal agency that oversees rail projects.
"Given DOE's track record at building anything, the Board is a far better agency than DOE to run a project of this magnitude," Sandoval said in a statement. "It is also far less biased."
The state also complains the department intends to use truck casks on rail cars to move the waste, a method which has not been analyzed for safety. The department has only evaluated using trucks casks on truck or rail cars using stronger containers specifically made to be used on trains.
"The proposed railroad through Caliente is a billion dollar boondoggle," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev. "Rather than follow regulations to protect Nevada's environment, the White House is barreling down the tracks with absolute disregard for the law and the people of Nevada."
Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis was not aware of the lawsuit this morning, so he declined comment on it. The department generally does not discuss pending litigation anyway.
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Las Vegas SUN
September 08, 2004
Ziser sets sights on Reid after winning Nevada GOP Senate primary
By Sandra Chereb
Associated Press
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Richard Ziser is banking on conservatism and an influx of cash as he sets his sights on incumbent Democrat Harry Reid after cruising to victory in Tuesday's Republican U.S. Senate primary.
Ziser, who to date has raised only $1 for every $18 in Reid's hefty $7.8 million campaign fund, said he thinks his primary win will generate more money to bolster his bid to unseat Reid, who is seeking his fourth, six-year term in November.
"The biggest problem we have is our primary is extremely late," Ziser said. "It's difficult for the national organizations, when you have a contested primary, to jump on board."
A lot of prospective contributors, he said, were "sitting in the wings" waiting for the primary results.
"There's a lot of groups out there that are really interested in helping us defeat Harry Reid," he said.
Ziser won Tuesday's GOP contest by a nearly 2-1 margin over his closest rival, getting 40,484 votes or 34 percent of ballots cast with only one precinct still outstanding.
Kenneth Wegner, a disabled Las Vegas combat veteran, was a distant second with 21,325 votes or 18 percent, while Georgia rancher and Florida resident Bob Brown had 19,504 votes or 16 percent.
"None of these candidates," a symbolic option for Nevada voters in statewide races, received 14 percent (16,759), which was better than the other three GOP candidates - Royle Melton, a Reno lawyer, 9 percent (10,505); Cherie Tilley of Spring Creek, 9 percent (10,337) and perennial candidate Carlo Poliak of Las Vegas, 1 percent (1,764).
Ziser is the former chairman of the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage, which successfully backed an initiative to prohibit the state from recognizing gay marriages. Voters overwhelming approved the constitutional amendment in 2000 and 2002.
Given that exposure, Ziser's victory was not surprising, said David Damore, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
"He had the most name recognition. His name was in the paper for two years," Damore said.
But he predicted it will be an uphill battle to unseat Reid, the second most powerful Democrat in the Senate.
Reid, 64, who was unopposed in the primary, was not taking any chances.
"I'm certainly not taking anything for granted in this election," Reid said by telephone from Washington, D.C. "I hope we can talk about the issues that are important to the people of Nevada."
Reid defeated Republican John Ensign in 1998 by only 428 votes after a lengthy recount. Ensign won Nevada's other Senate seat two years later, and Reid began amassing funds to avoid another squeaker in 2004.
Reid's slim victory showed he is vulnerable, Ziser said, adding he plans to target conservative, or so-called Reagan Democrats, in the coming weeks.
"He has a voting record. It doesn't align with what Nevadans believe," said Ziser, who said limited government, national defense, free enterprise and family values are issues important to voters.
Reid said health care, Medicare, energy, national security, terrorism, education, and nuclear waste will dominate the discussion heading into November.
"The middle class is being squeezed; seniors are terribly concerned about Medicare," Reid said.
"And we have to talk about getting our soldiers out of Iraq."
Reid and Ziser have differed on the federal government's proposed high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.
Reid has helped lead Nevada's fight against the nuclear waste dump for nearly two decades. Ziser has said Nevada should negotiate for benefits from the project 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
"There's nothing to negotiate," Reid said. "There's nothing the federal government can give us except poisons."
Other candidates on the November ballot include Libertarian Thomas Hurst, Independent American David Schumann, and Natural Law candidate Gary Marinch.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 08, 2004
TOP OF THE TICKET: Federal races go as expected
Heavily favored candidates advance to general election
By Erin Neff
Review-Journal
The top of the primary ticket played out largely as anticipated Tuesday, with the federal candidates who were heavily favored meeting expectations and advancing to November's general election.
Richard Ziser, a businessman who led the successful ballot initiative banning gay marriage in Nevada, won a six-way Republican primary for the right to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, according to unofficial election totals.
Ziser was a little shaken by the larger-than-expected support for Robert "Bob" Brown, a Florida resident who wasn't seen in Nevada during the primary campaign, but still got about 21 percent of the vote in Clark County.
"What that's telling us is that it's a name-recognition battle now, and we haven't done any major media," Ziser said. "Once we come out of the primary, all of that starts coming together."
The 51-year-old ran on a conservative values plank, complete with anti-tax zeal and further discussion of the protection of marriage. He also took a controversial stand in support of negotiating for benefits from the federal government in exchange for accepting the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Ziser said he can beat Reid if he can get his message out.
However, Reid has largely cornered that market, raising nearly $8 million for his re-election campaign and drawing support from Republicans in the process.
"Senator Reid is looking forward to a campaign that's focused on issues important to Nevadans," said Tessa Hafen, Reid's campaign spokeswoman. "Senator Reid will run a race on the values that are important to Nevada citizens."
Reid and Ziser will face Independent American David Schumann, Libertarian Thomas Hurst and Natural Law candidate Gary Marinch in November.
Tom Gallagher easily won the Democratic nomination in the 3rd Congressional District, collecting about 70 percent of the vote and coasting past five other candidates for the right to challenge freshman Republican Jon Porter in the fall.
"I'm just really, really grateful to the people in the district," Gallagher said while celebrating with supporters at the Gin Mill in Henderson. "We spent six months walking the district, and clearly it's worked very, very well in the primary. This is the fight to put somebody in that seat who will really fight for the residents of the district."
Gallagher, 59, the former chief executive officer of Park Place Entertainment, already has seeded his campaign with more than $375,000, en route to raising about $1.2 million. He believes the race will cost about $2 million.
Gallagher, who has spent a lot of money on television advertising to boost his name recognition, has about $385,000 in the bank for the general election, compared to Porter's $1.2 million cash on hand.
Porter was in Washington, D.C., and unavailable for comment Tuesday night.
Porter and Gallagher will face Libertarian Joseph Silvestri and Independent American Richard O'Dell in the general election.
Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley withstood two challengers from the left, winning the 1st Congressional District primary with more than 80 percent of the vote.
"I'm thrilled that it's such a big margin of victory," Berkley said from Washington, D.C., where Congress had a full session of voting Tuesday.
On the Republican side, Russ Mickelson, a 74-year-old GOP supporter, handily beat Francisco Tamez and Lewis Byer. Mickelson will challenge Berkley in November in the heavily Democratic district. Libertarian Jim Duensing is also on the 1st Congressional District ballot.
"I think we need to support the administration and national party, particularly with the terrorism issue and to make sure our men and women on the battle front get all they need to get the job done," said Mickelson, a retired Air Force pilot and former Department of Defense worker.
In the largely Republican 2nd Congressional District, which includes a portion of Clark County and the state's other 16 counties, Democrats David Bennett and Angie Cochran were locked in a close race early today, with Cochrane ahead 51 percent to 49 percent. The winner will face heavily favored incumbent Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., Independent American Janine Hansen and Libertarian Brendan Trainor in November.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
September 08, 2004
JOHN L. SMITH: Gallagher faces tough task giving voters reasons to oust incumbent
The fact the column clipping is nearly 32 years old says a lot about how long Washington politics has been in Tom Gallagher's system.
Gallagher was a 27-year-old kid in November 1972, when he decided to leave Washington after two years as a legislative assistant to California Sen. John V. Tunney and accept a position with a Los Angeles law firm. In an essay that surely made Gallagher the envy of a legion of nearly anonymous Washington staffers, political reporter Lou Cannon tossed him a laurel in a "Letter From Washington."
Cannon wrote, "He is, in a way, one of the lucky ones, because he is getting out of government before the glamour has worn off and also because he accomplished something while he was here."
The column went on to extol Gallagher's hard work, intelligence, and effectiveness as a communicator in a place where all but the strongest voices are destined to become footnotes and background noise.
Given Gallagher's personal history, we shouldn't be surprised he's decided to step back into the game after more than three decades and challenge Republican incumbent Jon Porter in Congressional District 3. It can be argued Gallagher has waited all that time for an opportunity to return to the arena.
Times have changed, of course. Gallagher, 59, is no longer a kid fresh out of Harvard. He's made his mark in business, rising to the top of one of the largest gaming companies in the world as chairman of then-Park Place Entertainment. Gallagher and his wife of 37 years, Mary Kay, have raised their four children and are financially secure.
Talk to Gallagher and you'll come away convinced he's not a man on the make. He's also not entirely comfortable on the stump, where he's hit-and-miss with voters. After watching him work a few rooms, I'll wager he's more comfortable talking issues with small groups than trying to sell a more polished image before a mass audience.
Porter, meanwhile, is known as an eminently likable man with long ties to the community (Gallagher has called Nevada home seven years). A former Boulder City councilman, mayor, and state senator, Porter is an insurance agent who has risen to a seat in the House of Representatives. By anyone's measure, that makes him no slouch as a campaigner.
Porter's "Sunny Jim" exterior is deceiving. He's made plenty of friends in Southern Nevada in 20 years in politics and has carved out powerful alliances with GOP insiders in Washington. In short, he understands the game.
As Gallagher has grown more comfortable with the campaign process, his passion for a wide variety of issues ranging from prescription drugs for seniors to the American presence in Iraq has begun to emerge.
Whether Gallagher can exploit the Yucca Mountain issue and Porter's extreme loyalty to Republican House leadership remains to be seen. And what's unclear is whether he can communicate that passion at the volume necessary to swing the campaign his way. He needs to get aggressive immediately.
He'll have to do so without much help from Gaming Inc.'s biggest corporations, which have embraced Porter.
If casino companies begin to budge in the coming weeks, it will be a sign Gallagher has gained ground. If not, Porter will have broken the David Towell one-term jinx and could be headed for a long congressional career.
Much of Gallagher's political future, I believe, hangs on Sen. John Kerry's ability to keep the presidential race close in Nevada. And word is Kerry & Co. are headed back this way.
Voters usually need a reason to vote out an incumbent, and Porter possesses an uncanny ability to remain below the political radar on issues that have tripped up other Republicans. It will be Gallagher's job to put Porter in the middle of the picture and redefine him for voters currently being bombarded with messages. That won't be easy.
All those factors and unanswered questions make him an underdog, but he possesses a formidable pedigree.
Is Tom Gallagher destined to return to Washington, this time as a congressman from Nevada?
After nearly 32 years, he has two months left to answer that question.
John L. Smith's column appears Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0295.
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Washington Times
September 08, 2004
Wasteful politics
By Yearn Hong Choi
Political campaigns have an idealistic appeal to the public. Sen. John Kerry, campaigning in the state of Nevada, made a very serious statement not to use Yucca Mountain as the nation's high-level nuclear waste disposal site. I wish he had not made such a statement, because it represents a setback in the U.S. waste program.
President Bush made a courageous decision to designate Yucca Mountain as a permanent nuclear waste disposal site two years ago. His decision was unpopular in Nevada, but Congress endorsed it. It had taken more than 20 years to reach that stage. The Department of Energy has been searching for the best available site in the nation since the passage of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1982. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's licensing process is the project's next hurdle. Mr. Kerry cannot reverse the progress made so far.
What is Mr. Kerry going to do? He proposed searching for an international consortium, which has been discussed and studied in the circle of the National Research Council scientists and engineers. Russia and China may propose disposal sites in Central Asia and the Gobi Desert for permanent disposal of high-level nuclear waste and spent fuel. It may be possible in the distant future. Whatever the future will be, however, the United States cannot dispose of its nuclear waste in Central Asia or the Gobi Desert. Transportation would simply be too costly.
If the United States rejects the Yucca Mountain site on the grounds of geological safety, I don't think any site can be considered safe in this world. If that is the case, then all nations should close down their nuclear power plants and stop nuclear weapons production.
We can stop nuclear weapons production, but can we close down the nuclear power plants? The United States can, because it relies onnuclear power for only 20 percent of its electricity, butSouth Korea,my home country, generates 50 percent of its electricity from nuclear power. China, India, Japanand Southeast Asian nations are expanding their nuclear power programs to supply their future energy needs. Shutting down the Yucca Mountain program will have an enormous impact on the world energy utilities. If there is no safe disposal site, all nuclear power plants should be shut down.
Tons of research works and findings on high-level waste disposal have accumulated since the 1980s. Based upon those findings, the Department of Energy proposed the Nevada site. There is probably no one best site, but it is fair to say that Yucca Mountain is one of the best available sites. If idealistic environmentalists are seeking a no-risk society, they will fail. In this world, seeking a no-risk society is an impossible mission. It seems to me that some American politicians and intellectuals are seeking a no-risk society. U.S. scientists and engineers have examined and re-examined the research findings, and made a positive response to Mr. Bush's decision. I trust their work.
The Democratic Party has maintained a good environmental image. But giving up theYucca Mountain site is environmentally unethical. The Clinton administration postponed the decision to finalize the Nevada site for political reasons. The United States has generated nuclear waste since the Manhattan Project in 1940s. There should be a site for disposing of the waste. Avoiding the responsibility is not a wise president's job, although it may be a good politician's tactic. Bill Clinton also could have ratified the Kyoto protocol, or could have made an attempt to ratify it. He did not. The Bush administration made a decision against Kyoto, a decision that has been criticized by the international community. Mr. Clinton also was responsible for the failure of California's search for a disposal site for low-level waste on federal land in California. I wonder whether the Clinton administration deserved its high evaluation in the field of environmental policy and management.
I wish Mr. Kerry had proposed no more nuclear power plants and nuclear-weapons production in the United States, but he did not clearly say this. Or that he had proposed a retrievable disposal facility in Nevada, assuming that future science can find and invent safer disposal site and methods. He did not say that either. He just said, "No Yucca Mountain site for disposal under my presidency!" His declaration is political — no more, no less — and he is turning the world back to 1982.
The U.S. nuclear-energy industry is also having difficulty finding low-level waste disposal sites. The two disposal sites in South Carolina and Washington that existed prior to the 1980 Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act had been taking waste from the 50 states. The 1980 act proposed that low-level waste disposal should be the responsibility of state or interstate compacts, but no new site has been opened. This is a very serious problem for the United States, and it has set a bad example to the outside world. Finding nuclear waste disposal sites is the most difficult task in American politics. I hope Mr. Kerry knows it.
Yearn Hong Choi is a professor at the University of Seoul and former assistant for environmental quality in the Department of Defense.
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BusinessWeek
September 08, 2004
What's Scaring Bush In These Swing States
Even before the balloons and confetti rained down on the GOP faithful in Madison Square Garden, the Bush campaign was claiming victory, after a fashion. With several polls showing that the President had erased Democrat John Kerry's small lead, the President's supporters declared that the dynamic in the race now favored George W., not a rival who had spent much of August in a defensive crouch. "We're where I thought we'd be on the day after Labor Day," says chief Bush strategist Matthew Dowd.
Yet as Dowd knows, it's not the popular vote that counts, since state-by-state Electoral College numbers determine the winner. And big mo' or no, Bush still faces a tough job of reaching the magic number of 270 electoral votes. Indeed, efforts to piece together an electoral majority have been complicated by a series of local political obstacles in key battlegrounds. The challenges range from wobbly state economies to demographic shifts and not-in-my-backyard environmental fights.
Just look at Nevada, which Bush won by 3.5 percentage points in 2000. A recent influx of Latinos and others from California has transformed a traditionally Republican state into a toss-up. But the factor that could tip the balance is the wildly unpopular federal nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. In 2000, Bush capitalized on local ire by declaring that, as President, he wouldn't O.K. dumping to any site "unless it's been deemed scientifically safe." Two years later, Bush signed a bill to designate Yucca as a nuclear waste repository, setting off vociferous local protests. And now Kerry insists he will never allow the feds to bury waste in the Silver State.
Demographic shifts also have changed the political landscape in Florida. New residents from the North and non-Cuban immigrants from the Caribbean are quickly tilting the state toward the Democrats. Since 2000, there's been a 30% increase in the Hispanic voting-age population -- nearly all of it non-Cuban, notes Ed Kilgore, policy director of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. To overcome the Dems' gains, Republicans have redoubled efforts to register conservative Christians and pro-Bush Cuban Americans.
While newcomers are cause for Republican concern in Nevada and Florida, economic woes have created tighter-than-expected races in Ohio and North Carolina. In the Buckeye State, Bush is on the defensive because of the loss of 170,000 manufacturing jobs during his Presidency. "Ohio is an economically driven state frustrated with the pace of the recovery," says conservative analyst Frank I. Luntz. To overcome econo-angst, the Bush campaign is stressing "values issues" that favor the GOP, particularly Bush's opposition to gay marriage and abortion.
That's also how the President is hoping to hold North Carolina, a state he carried in 2000 by 13 percentage points but which is much closer this year. The continuing decline of the textile industry, which has shed thousands of jobs, is mostly to blame. But the Vice-Presidential candidacy of John Edwards, son of a retired North Carolina mill worker, is hurting, too. An Aug. 23 Zogby poll showed Kerry and Edwards running one percentage point ahead in the state. Nevertheless, top Bush lieutenants are unabashed in their upbeat assessment of local prospects. Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans, for instance, argues that tech and service jobs have more than compensated for the textile troubles. "North Carolina is a model example of our economy in America," Evans insists.
The values debate may work in Bush's favor in Ohio and North Carolina, but it could backfire in Pennsylvania. In the GOP-leaning Philadelphia suburbs, a large bloc of culturally liberal swing voters are turned off by the party's social conservatism. A vast majority of suburban women favor gun control and abortion rights, and many consider a constitutional ban on gay marriage unwise. An Aug. 2-15 Keystone Poll, a nonpartisan statewide poll conducted by Franklin & Marshall College, found that independents and moderates in the state favored Kerry over Bush by a 2-to-1 margin. The concerns about social issues shaved Bush's lead in economically conservative suburban Philly to just three percentage points -- trouble in an area where Republicans outnumber Democrats 3 to 2. "Bush needs to be ahead by 8 to 10 percentage points there to carry the state," says Keystone Poll director G. Terry Madonna, a political scientist at Franklin & Marshall.
Even if the suburban swing voters are lost, the Republicans aim to compensate for any defections in southeastern Pennsylvania by wooing culturally conservative gun owners in the depressed southwestern section of the state. That'll be a challenge: The Keystone Poll shows Kerry ahead there, 54% to 35%.
In the end, the best way for Bush to win swing states is to bump up the national vote by two or three percentage points. A good convention is a start toward that goal. But Team Bush knows that it can't afford to ignore community concerns along the way. This year, as Dowd notes, "A few hundred votes in a few states can make a lot of difference."
By Richard S. Dunham in New York
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Mohave Valley News
September 07, 2004
Assemblyman stumps in Laughlin
By Nicole Feneberg Lucht
News West
LAUGHLIN — Dr. Joe Hardy, state Assemblyman for District 20, made his rounds in Laughlin Aug. 18.
Hardy, who has a family practice at Fremont Medical Center in Henderson, said one of his biggest concerns is improving mental health care and that he knows that funding in Laughlin is important.
“(The Nevada Legislature) passed legislation that would increase mental health funding,’ Hardy said. “Hopefully, we can get mental health access here in Laughlin and not have to be totally dependent on private foundation grants that may not be renewable.’
Hardy said Nevada´s largest mental health system is “probably the prison system, and that´s not right.
“If we can help people before they get in trouble, that would be wise,’ Hardy said. “It´s much better to prevent than it is to incarcerate.’
Hardy also addressed the need for affordable health care for the working class and said he is working to expand the availability to small businesses and working poor.
“We are in the process of defining and putting different levels on so people will be able to qualify (for health care),’ Hardy said.
Hardy said prescription drugs people can afford are vital to improving health care and said it is not unrealistic for someone to pay about $400 a month on their medicines
“When you are on a fixed income, that doesn´t work,’ said Hardy, who represents Laughlin in the Nevada Legislature.
He said he is working to expand the Senior Rx program to include more seniors that have become eligible.
The assemblyman said this would ensure they have the opportunity to get the medicines they need.
Hardy said re-importation of drugs is a viable option and related a story of a man at the Spirit Mountain Activity Center senior center who pays $60 per month for his medications. While visiting Canada, the man went to a pharmacist and found the identical drug for $11.
The Nevada-born assemblyman is also supportive of the “Keep Our Doctors in Nevada’ general election ballot question.
“You have to make sure the doctors are willing to come and to stay and to keep doing what they are doing,’ he said.
Beyond health issues, Hardy praised Nevada´s no-income-tax structure and “amplified business tax,’ requiring businesses to participate in the tax structure.
“Workers still have the ability to come here without the burden of income tax and be able to make a living,’ Hardy said.
He also hailed the low unemployment in Nevada, which he said is 4.2 percent.
“We are a very viable community,’ Hardy said. “This is a good place to be a worker.’
As for Yucca Mountain, Hardy said Nevadans “don´t need to worry about it.
“It has already happened with contamination of the Nevada Test Site,’ he said. “I think we are missing the point. It has already happened. Let´s get something for the Nevada Test Site.’
Hardy said that while he authored and passed legislation that would compensate for the water and land made unusable for Nevadans at the test site, there is still much work to be done.
“When we originally became a state, we got half as much land as other states later on,’ Hardy said. “If we got more land in this state, then we would have the opportunity to use it. Laughlin knows about this. We need more land ... so we can use it as our tax base.
“When your state only owns 13 percent of its land, you can´t (fund) education based on property tax, you have to find some other thing,’ he said. “That is what we are finding ourselves having to do. If the federal government would actually step up and do what they said they were supposed to do, which was payment in lieu of taxes copayments, then that would be good, because they are always underfunding that. We would like that funded, we would like land and we would like water allocations, which are very crucial to the growth of our state and for the growth of Laughlin.’
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State of Nevada
Agency for Nuclear Projects
www.state.nv.us/nucwaste/
nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us
775-687-3744
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