Yucca Mountain News Clips - Wednesday, October 6, 2004

Yucca Mountain News Clips
Wednesday, October 6, 2004
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Las Vegas SUN
October 06, 2004

Option on Yucca appeal left open

By Benjamin Grove
<grove@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The federal government is maintaining its option to seek a Supreme Court review of a lower court ruling against Yucca Mountain.

The request for appeal remains unlikely and would contradict stances made by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department. The two agencies have signalled they have no interest in a Supreme Court appeal.

The Energy Department has said the best way to proceed "is not to engage in further litigation but to allow EPA to work to develop an appropriate regulatory response to address the issues raised by the courts," department spokesman Joe Davis said.

Still, a court document filed by the Justice Department on Sept. 23 asserts that the department's solicitor general is clinging to the Supreme Court option. The deadline to request an appeal is Nov. 30.

At issue is a July 9 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. It said the EPA's 10,000-year radiation standard for the proposed waste repository at Yucca unlawfully deviated from stricter National Academy of Sciences recommendations.

The ruling was a significant setback to the Energy Department plan to bury the nation's high-level nuclear waste at Yucca, Nevada officials said.

White House spokesman Ken Lisaius this week gave no new signal that President Bush wants to appeal to the nation's highest court.

"There is nothing changed" in Bush's stance, Lisaius said.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she expects Bush will push for a Supreme Court challenge after the election.

"George Bush is desperate to pick up Nevada's five electoral votes," Berkley said.

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Las Vegas SUN
October 06, 2004

Government considers appealing Yucca ruling

By Benjamin Grove
<grove@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The federal government is maintaining its option to seek a Supreme Court review of a lower court ruling against Yucca Mountain.

The ruling was a significant setback to the Energy Department plan to bury the nation's high-level nuclear waste at Yucca, Nevada officials said.

White House spokesman Ken Lisaius this week gave no new signal that President Bush wants to appeal to the nation's highest court.

"There is nothing changed" in Bush's stance, Lisaius said.

Lisaius noted that after the ruling Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said his department would work with the Environmental Protection Agency and Congress -- he notably did not mention courts -- to respond to the ruling.

Both the Energy Department and the EPA declined to file appeals to the federal appeals court by an Aug. 24 deadline.

And on Sept. 7, in response to Sun questions about whether the EPA would appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, the EPA issued a statement saying the agency "has elected not to seek further court review."

In addition, an EPA official told a National Academy of Sciences Board on Sept. 20 that the agency was reviewing how to best comply with the lower court. The official made no mention that the EPA considered a Supreme Court appeal an option.

But "final authority" on Supreme Court appeals rests with the nation's Solicitor General, according to the Justice Department court document. And Acting Solicitor General Paul Clement has not signalled whether he would appeal, Justice Department spokesman Blain Rethmeier said.

Generally, the Solicitor General reserves the right to appeal whether he intends to or not.

The solicitor general is keeping his cards close to the vest by design, Nevada Senior Deputy Attorney General Marta Adams said. For strategy reasons lawyers often wait until the last minute to file a Supreme Court appeal, she said.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
October 06, 2004

NUCLEAR REPOSITORY: Yucca court challenge alive

Justice Department still may ask court to keep disputed radiation rules intact

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The White House on Tuesday distanced itself from a Justice Department document suggesting the Bush administration might ask the Supreme Court to keep intact disputed radiation rules for the Yucca Mountain Project.

Despite previous statements from Bush administration officials that there would be no appeal of a July court ruling that set back the nuclear waste project, Justice Department attorneys on Sept. 23 filed a document in federal court stating the U.S. solicitor general has final say over Supreme Court actions.

"At this writing, the solicitor general has not yet made any decision regarding Supreme Court review in this case," the department said.

The document's disclosure aroused Democrats and critics of the Yucca project. They charged President Bush, who appoints the solicitor general, may be angling to prolong legal fights over Yucca Mountain if he is re-elected.

The deadline for filing a Supreme Court appeal in the matter is Nov. 30, according to attorneys for the Nuclear Energy Institute, which already has indicated it will seek court review.

A Justice Department source said it is unlikely that acting solicitor general Paul D. Clement will take Yucca Mountain to the Supreme Court, consistent with the views expressed by the Bush administration.

But with Justice Department officials claiming they have an option, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., charged Bush was violating a statement he made in Nevada on Aug. 12 that he would let the courts rule on the nuclear waste repository.

"My concern once again is that the president on Yucca Mountain is talking out of both sides of his mouth," Reid said.

"This sounds like George Bush wasn't exactly honest when he was out here last time," said Sean Smith, Nevada spokesman for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. "He's giving himself the option to push forward. It fits the pattern of him not leveling with the people of Nevada on this issue and other issues."

Attorney General Brian Sandoval, who also is co-chairman of the Bush campaign in Nevada, disagreed. He said federal agencies appear to be in a turf battle over who calls the shots on Supreme Court appeals, and Justice Department officials were claiming their turf.

"I don't think politics has anything to do with this," Sandoval said. "The solicitor is viewing this purely from a legal perspective."

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said Democrats "are trying to take a cheap shot here." He said the Justice Department document was not inconsistent with what Bush told Nevadans in August.

But, Ensign said, "I would love to drive a stake through Yucca Mountain and be done with it."

Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman for the Bush campaign in Nevada, said the criticism of Bush is "disingenuous when Kerry misled the state on his record for months."

Republicans have criticized Kerry on seven specific votes he cast on the project over the course of two decades, including his vote for the "Screw Nevada" bill that singled out Yucca Mountain for study in 1987. Democrats note Kerry opposed the project in key votes in recent years and has promised to kill the program if elected.

The exchange marked a new skirmish over the Yucca Mountain Project, seen as a key wedge issue for the presidential campaigns in Nevada, a battleground state.

It stems from a July 9 ruling in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that ruled in favor of the government on a number of issues but threw the proposed nuclear waste repository into uncertainty by voiding a 10,000 year radiation standard written by the Environmental Protection Agency.

White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said the president's position has been expressed by Energy Department and EPA officials who have said they see little value in prolonging a court case in which the government won most of the arguments.

"My understanding is that the circumstances have not changed," Lisaius said, adding he could not explain the Justice Department court filing.

Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis said: "We believe that the framework the Court decision requires is workable and that therefore the best way to proceed is not to engage in further litigation but to allow EPA to work to develop an appropriate regulatory response to address the issued raised by the Court."

Justice Department spokesman Blain Rethmeier would not comment on the court filing. He said the department's stance "is in line with the White House."

A Justice Department source indicated that Sandoval's reading of the matter may be closest to correct.

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Lahontan Valley News
October 06, 2004

In brief
Town Hall meeting on Yucca Mountain today

A Citizens Alert Town Hall meeting and Education Forum will present the mock nuclear waste cask at the Fallon Convention Center today from 2-4 p.m. Get the latest information on the Yucca Mountain Project, Caliente Rail Corridor and water issues. For more information see the Website www.citizenalert.org.

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KRNV
October 06, 2004

Kerry makes bold guarantees about Yucca, Reno campaign stop

Democrat John Kerry says if he is elected president he will refuse to fund efforts crucial to the construction of Yucca Mountain to keep the nation's nuclear waste dump from being built in Nevada.

Kerry told a News 4 in a satellite feed from Iowa Tuesday that he does not think Yucca Mountain is safe.

He told KRNV-TV, "I'll guarantee you, if I'm president, Yucca Mountain is not going to happen. Nevada can take that to the bank."

Kerry repeatedly has pledged to kill the high-level radioactive waste repository planned 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. But Republicans argue he's powerless to do anything about it and that the federal courts ultimately will decide the fate of the project.

Kerry told News 4's Karen Rueter Tuesday he has a number of ways to keep the dump from being built, beginning with his budget. He says refusing to fund things necessary to make Yucca Mountain a reality is a good place to start.

In addition, Kerry says the Department of Transportation, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency have to approve various health and safety standards for the dump to be built. As president, he says he would have the power to make sure those signoffs don't occur.

Republicans have criticized Kerry as changing his position on Yucca Mountain in order to win votes.

They point out that Kerry voted seven times in favor of Yucca including the famouse "Screw Nevada" bill in which lawmakers rejected other sites and agreed to study only Yucca Mountain as a potential nuclear waste dump.

Kerry also guaranteed Rueter that he would come to northern Nevada at least once before election day.

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Las Vegas SUN
October 05, 2004

Kerry would use budget, Cabinet influence to kill Yucca Mountain

Associated Press

RENO, Nev. (AP) - Democrat John Kerry said if he is elected president he will refuse to fund efforts crucial to the construction of Yucca Mountain to keep the nation's nuclear waste dump from being built in Nevada.

"I'll guarantee you, if I'm president, Yucca Mountain is not going to happen," Kerry said Tuesday.

"Nevada can take that to the bank," he told KRNV-TV in Reno on Tuesday in a satellite hookup from Tipton, Iowa. "I don't think it is safe."

Kerry repeatedly has pledged to kill the high-level radioactive waste repository planned 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, but Republicans argue he's powerless to do anything about it and that the federal courts ultimately will decide the fate of the project.

"I have any number of ways to keep it from happening," Kerry insisted Tuesday from Iowa where he was campaigning.

"First of all, in my budget, by not funding the things necessary to make it happen, that is a good place to start," he said.

In addition, the Department of Transportation, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency have to approve various health and safety standards for the dump to be built, he said.

"Since I will make those appointments and I will be the president, I have the ability to guarantee those signoffs don't occur," he said.

Kerry, who repeated his pledge to visit Reno before Election Day, said scientific studies have raised serious concerns about the safety of Yucca Mountain.

"It is too bad they have been raised late. I know money has been spent. But that doesn't mean you go do something that doesn't make sense. I don't think Nevada should be made the scapegoat dumping ground and I don't intend to do it," he said.

President Bush has defended his decision to go forward with the nuclear waste dump despite it being unpopular in the swing state he won four years ago.

"I said I would make a decision based upon science, not politics," Bush told a Las Vegas crowd in August.

"I said I would listen to the scientists, those involved with determining whether or not this project could move forward in a safe manner and that's exactly what I did," he said.

Bush said he was pleased to "allow this process to be appealed to the courts and to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission."

"I will stand by the decision of the courts and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission," the president said.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., is among those who think the federal courts will determine if Yucca Mountain will be built "regardless of who is the president," Ensign's spokesman Jack Finn said recently.

"John Kerry says `If I'm president, there will be no repository.' He can't make that statement. Nevadans should not believe him," Finn said.

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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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