Yucca Mountain News Clips
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
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NIRS
November 16, 2004
White House Asks Congress to Overturn Court Decision on Yucca Mountain!
Contact your Senators now!
Congressional Quarterly is reporting today that the White House is asking the lame duck Congress to overturn last summer´s federal court decision that threw out the Environmental Protection Agency´s 10,000-year radiation protection standard for the proposed Yucca Mountain high-level radioactive waste dump. The court ruled that Congress had required EPA to abide by the recommendations of the National Academy of Sciences, which has stated that the highest radiation doses from Yucca could come in the hundreds of thousands of years.
The White House apparently is asking that this be done as a rider to the Energy and Water Appropriations bill now being considered by the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee.
This is absolutely inappropriate. There have been no hearings on this issue. The Senate (and House) have not examined this issue. Further, the court decision was correct, and should not be overturned. This is yet another transparent effort to put politics above science (which candidate Bush in 2000 said he wouldn´t do!) and license Yucca Mountain at any cost to Nevada and the environment generally.
There is not much time to act, but your actions right now will make a huge difference. Congress does have to pass the Energy appropriations measure, but it also wants to go home. If we can flood the Congress with phone calls this week, Congress will decide this is just too much to handle right now. So, please, call your Senators and Representatives right now (Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121). Then, ask your friend and neighbors to call. Alert your own e-mail lists and phone trees. Write a quick letter to the editor. Call radio talk shows. We need to raise this issue as loudly as possible as quickly as possible. A vote could occur by the end of the week. It is especially important to contact the members of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water (listed at the end of this message). But all Senators and Representatives should be called.
The message is simple: Congress must not, in a lame duck session, put politics above science and overturn this reasoned federal court decision. At the very least, Congress should wait until it can hold full hearings and investigate the issue.
Thank you for your help!
Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
202.328.0002
November 16,2004, 5 pm
Members of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water
Senator Pete Domenici (Chairman) (NM)
Senator Thad Cochran (MS)
Senator Mitch McConnell (KY)
Senator Robert Bennett (UT)
Senator Conrad Burns (MT)
Senator Larry Craig (ID)
Senator Christopher Bond (MO)
Senator Harry Reid (Ranking Member) (NV)
Senator Robert C. Byrd (WV)
Senator Ernest Hollings (SC)
Senator Patty Murray (WA)
Senator Byron Dorgan (ND)
Senator Diane Feinstein (CA)
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KRNV
November 17, 2004
State's nuclear project director says Yucca is dead
As soon as it became clear President Bush would remain in office another four years many Nevadans immediately turned their attention to Yucca Mountain and what happens now.
It was mentioned in every single Democratic visit in Nevada during election season. The plan, push Yucca Mountain and win Nevada. It didn't work and the president who approved Yucca as the nations nuclear waste dump remains in office.
But does this mountain of controversy really depend on who's in the White House.
Bob Loux is the Nevada Director of Nuclear Projects. He says that no matter who was elected, the project is dead. "It made no difference who was elected president. If Kerry was elected president perhaps this might have occurred a little sooner, but the project is dead anyway, it didn't matter."
The site is still sitting in limbo, submerged in court decisions and EPA requirements. Loux says that's where the project will remain, and eventually die.
The Department of Energy is far from conceding, but refused to comment on Yucca Mountain until further decisions on the project are made.
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham resigned Monday leaving Yucca's future even more up in the air.
Loux also says that if Nevada hadn't have fought the project, it would have become a reality.
In the early 1990's the department of energy tried to play "Lets Make a Deal" with Nevada, offering 10 million a year until the waste arrived, and 20 million a year after that. Loux says the state wasn't buying then, and even if a greater amount was offered, they wouldn't buy it now.
"It's not gonna happen in Nevada. The legislature the governor and the congressional delegation have all made crystal clear. There's never gonna be any negotiation or retreat on Yucca Mountain."
And so it sits, right now not much more than a high tech hole in the ground, and only time will tell if this mountain of controversy will ever live up to its name.
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Las Vegas SUN
November 17, 2004
Uncertainty surrounds deadline for Yucca application
By Suzanne Struglinski
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The only thing certain about the Yucca Mountain project is a lot of uncertainty, officials from the department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday.
With six weeks to go until the end of the year, there's a complete draft of the license application for the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, but there is no clear answer as to whether the Energy Department will meet its self-imposed deadline of getting a final version to the commission before 2005.
Questions about the project's budget, documentation rules and licensing requirements remain and the department is still meeting with its lawyers on what to do next, Joseph Ziegler, director of project's license application and strategy office, said at a meeting of the commission's Advisory Commission on Nuclear Waste Tuesday.
Ziegler said he needed to "dodge" a question on the project's schedule due to all the surrounding circumstances.
"There are a lot of things that have happened over the past several months," Ziegler said. "I don't have an answer."
Congress's extension on the 2004 budget expires Saturday leaving the department's funding for the project in limbo. Even if it stays at the $577 million level it received for the 2004 fiscal year, it would be less than the $880 million the department wanted for 2005 and money would most likely have to be reshuffled. Ziegler did not know how it would be reallocated and the Yucca Mountain Project press office will not comment until Congress takes action on the matter.
For most of the year the department has insisted it would get the application to the commission by the end of the year, but questions arose after the July ruling by the appeals court that threw out a key radiation protection standard. A commission board also said the project's documents were not in order.
Department spokesman Joe Davis will not answer questions about when the application might be done. He refers to earlier statements that the department is still evaluating its next steps.
There is no specific date the department is working toward to make its decision on what it will do with the application, he said. There is also no clear answer as to the department's progress in getting more documents to the commission for the License Support Network, a database of material used to support the fact in the application. But Ziegler said so far the application is fine.
"I think it's a pretty good application," although it is still being reviewed by management, Ziegler said.
He noted that all 293 key technical issues agreements, or requests for additional scientific data on specific portions of the project, have been answered and the commission has deemed 124 closed. Closed does not mean the information is right or wrong but that enough data exists to make that determination. Of the remaining issues, about 30 are considered high priority, said C. William Reamer, director of the commission's High Level Waste Repository Safety Division.
Reamer said the commission is interested in the department's schedule and its also waiting to see what the EPA does to create a new standard and what the department decides to do with the application
He said the commission is aware that the court's ruling shot a hole in the standard and the licensing rule. If the department chooses to submit a license application before a new standard is in place, he expects it will include an explanation from the department as to how the commission can review it.
There is to be a meeting on Monday involving Reamer and other commission staff, and Margaret Chu, the department's assistant secretary that oversees the project.
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Las Vegas SUN
November 17, 2004
Letter: Inevitable nuke dump wasn't an issue in election
The smoke has finally cleared from a close, expensive and negative campaign but one has to be encouraged because the voter turnout was unprecedented and the people have spoken.
I have read columnists who say that with John Kerry's loss, we deserve the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain and that if we do get it, we will have no one to blame but ourselves. I say, give the readers and voters a little more credit -- Yucca Mountain just wasn't an election issue.
Yucca Mountain opponents spent millions on a campaign that was based on falsehoods and fear. They tried to scare residents about the dangers of transportation with facts and figures that were false and misleading. I predict the waste will never go through Las Vegas. Rural Nevada is going to bear the burden of Yucca Mountain's transportation program. What needs to happen now is for rural Nevada to be provided with the best emergency response equipment and training. Also, any project-related facilities need to be located in rural Nevada.
A story in this paper said rural Nevada carried President Bush to victory. If that's the case, I applaud rural Nevada because its residents seem to be an independent bunch who separate the facts from the rhetoric.
One thing is clear: A nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain is ultimately inevitable. The question is: When will our elected officials and some in the media face that reality?
Ryan Moore
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Las Vegas SUN
November 16, 2004
Reid vows to continue fight on Yucca Mountain as minority leader
By Erica Werner
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Harry Reid promised Tuesday to maintain his opposition to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in his new position as Senate minority leader.
"I'll continue to fight as hard as I can on Yucca Mountain," Reid, D-Nev., told The Associated Press in an interview just hours after he was elected as Democratic leader.
Reid acknowledged that he has little room to maneuver. The fight over the dump planned for 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, and approved by Congress in 2002, is taking place mostly in court.
"The options are relatively limited compared to what they used to be," Reid said.
Even as minority leader, Reid is expected to maintain his position as top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee for energy and water, which handles Yucca Mountain funding. In that position he's been able to trim the project's funding levels, which haven't been determined for 2005.
Reid and a spokeswoman for the subcommittee's chairman, Republican Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, said Tuesday that they don't anticipate a stand-alone bill funding Yucca Mountain and other energy and water projects would pass Congress this year.
Instead, they predict a continuing resolution will be passed maintaining 2004 funding levels for Yucca Mountain and other projects through 2005. Congress budgeted $577 million for Yucca Mountain in 2004, far below the $880 million Bush requested in his 2005 budget proposal.
Reid said his opposition to Yucca Mountain funding levels proposed by the administration isn't to blame for the Senate's failure to pass an energy and water spending bill. Rather he said disagreements between Republicans in the Senate and House have delayed the bill.
Domenici spokeswoman Marnie Funk said House and Senate negotiators were working on a funding bill for energy and water projects and hoped to get it passed early next year, at which point it would supersede the continuing resolution. The House passed a $28 billion spending bill for energy and water projects in June.
"There were some differences between the House and Senate, we've made some progress, we're moving forward both with a (continuing resolution) and continuing to work toward reconciling the two bills," Funk said.
It wasn't clear how much funding Yucca Mountain would receive if an energy and water spending bill does pass.
The $880 million Bush administration proposal relied on a funding mechanism that Reid and other Nevada lawmakers oppose - $749 million from a special nuclear waste fund that takes in fees from customers of nuclear utilities.
When the House passed its energy and water bill this summer, it cut Yucca Mountain funding to $131 million.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
November 17, 2004
MINORITY POST: Reid elected Senate leader
Nevadan promoted on unanimous vote of Democratic caucus
By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Harry Reid of Nevada was elected Senate Democratic leader on Tuesday, achieving a new level of power he said he will use to cooperate with President Bush or fight him if necessary.
Reid, who had been the party's second-in-command in the Senate, was promoted by a unanimous vote of the Democratic caucus to head a new leadership team in the congressional term that begins in January.
With his election, Reid solidified his standing as the most influential Nevadan ever to serve in Congress, said Guy Rocha, Nevada state archivist.
"It's a slam dunk now," Rocha said. "Before, people may have argued for Patrick McCarran, but here all debate ends."
McCarran, a Democrat for whom the Las Vegas airport is named, served as senator from 1933 to 1954, wrote a series of significant bills and was regarded as one of the major anti-communist crusaders of the era.
In an interview, the 64-year-old Reid said Nevadans should see little difference in how he represents them as the top Democrat in the Senate.
"I have different responsibilities than I had a couple hours ago, but I still look to Nevada as my first line of responsibility," he said. "I have ongoing projects I am going to work on. I think people in Nevada will recognize I have ability to help more than I have in the past."
Reid inherits leadership of a Senate caucus that contains 44 Democrats, the fewest since 1931. Democrats' influence is boosted somewhat by Sen. Jim Jeffords, an independent from Vermont who usually votes with them.
Reid signalled a willingness to work with Bush, but said Democrats will not be pushed around by Republicans who may interpret Bush's re-election and GOP gains in Congress as a broad endorsement of their policies.
`He said four years ago he wanted to be a uniter," Reid said of Bush. "It didn't work well the first four years. We hope it works the second four years."
"I would rather dance than fight," the former boxer told reporters. "But I can fight."
While they lost 19 of 34 Senate elections on Nov. 2, Democratic Senate candidates won 3.5 million more votes than Republicans nationwide, Reid said. The party also made pick ups among state legislatures, he said.
"I think the majority should be careful about throwing words around like `mandate,' " Reid said. "President Bush won the election but it was certainly no mandate. If one state had turned around, Kerry would be president."
Reid had been a constant on the Senate floor for six years, managing legislation and floor proceedings as Democratic whip. He told reporters he is not an "untested vessel."
After he was elected minority leader, he reintroduced himself at a news conference that dwarfed most of those he had sponsored in the past. He described his hardscrabble upbringing in tiny Searchlight, and opportunities he was given to achieve an education and a career as an attorney.
"The reason I am telling this is if I can make it in America, anyone can," he said. Democrats, he said, "want people to have the same opportunities that Harry Reid had."
Democrats chose new leaders in the historic Old Senate Chamber, where senators met from 1810 until 1859 and debated slavery, western expansion and other issues confronting the young nation.
Reid was nominated by a mentor, 46-year Senate veteran Robert Byrd of West Virginia. In a move symbolizing outreach to party conservatives and the rural Midwest, Reid also asked Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska to speak on his behalf.
Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois was elected to Reid's old post of Democratic whip. Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan was elected conference secretary, the No. 3 position. Both selections were unanimous.
While the Democrats met behind closed doors for two hours, voting was completed rather quickly. Senators said they spent the rest of the time discussing policy and the elections, with little handwringing over the party's net loss of four Senate seats following defeats in the South.
The Democrats' presidential nominee, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, was there and was given several standing ovations, Reid said. The elections were attended by senators of the incoming Congress, so Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the outgoing leader who was defeated, was not present.
While Reid will not take over officially until January, he is playing a major role in managing the lame duck session that convened on Tuesday, while planning his transition.
Reid will move his leadership staff into Daschle's suite on the second floor of the Capitol, steps from the Senate floor. The new offices are about a dozen rooms larger than Reid's current digs on the third floor of the Capitol. Reid will continue to maintain a separate office for Nevada aides.
As leader, Reid will control an $8 million budget that funds the Democratic apparatus, including experts who advise senators on legislation, policy and floor procedure, communications aides and certain officers who report to the Senate sergeant-at-arms.
As one of the few Democrats in Washington who is hiring, Reid has received dozens of resumes from staff members for departing senators, plus aides who worked on Kerry's campaign.
A Reid staff of roughly 50 people will expand, but aides said it was not yet known how many more will be hired to support his leadership duties.
Reid said he has hired two Daschle advisers, policy aide Randy DeValk and Nancy Erickson, who was the South Dakotan's deputy chief of staff. He also has hired Kevin Kayes, formerly Commerce Committee staff director for retiring Sen. Ernest Hollings of South Carolina.
Reid plans to strengthen the Democrats' communications by establishing a "rapid response" team to promote the party message and respond to critics, according to chief of staff Susan McCue.
Reid also is expected to control a number of patronage jobs within the Senate bureaucracy that figure to be offered to supporters in the state.
"Come January you probably will see more Nevadans around here," an aide remarked.
Stephens Washington Bureau reporter Samantha Young contributed to this story.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
November 17, 2004
Editorial: Sen. Reid's ascent
Nevadans' voice in Congress just got a lot louder. Harry Reid was elected Senate minority leader Tuesday, elevating him to the top of the Democratic Party's dwindling membership in the upper house.
Sen. Reid's ascent to one of the most important positions in Washington is a remarkable achievement. From humble beginnings in hardscrabble Searchlight, the 64-year-old has spent decades accumulating political capital in Nevada and the nation's capital. He rose from the Assembly to the lieutenant governor's office at age 30. He chaired the Nevada Gaming Commission for five years before winning election to the House of Representatives in 1982, then the Senate in 1986.
For the past six years, he served as the party's second in command. Now, despite Nevada's lack of political clout, Sen. Reid has a chance to lead. No Nevadan has ever held a position of such power in the nation's capital.
Sen. Reid will have no honeymoon in his new job. Democrats hold only 44 of the Senate's 100 seats, their lowest ratio since the Great Depression. With a weakened minority he'll have to pick his battles with Republicans carefully, particularly in handling President Bush's judicial nominations.
But Sen. Reid will have even greater liberty to take up causes important to Nevada, including the state's opposition to the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository and misguided efforts to eliminate legal wagering on college and amateur sports.
"I always would rather dance than fight," Sen. Reid said Tuesday. "But I know how to fight."
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Nevada Appeal
November 17, 2004
From miner's son to minority leader, he never left Searchlight
Erica Werner
SEARCHLIGHT - Named the Senate's Democratic leader and his party's most powerful officeholder, Sen. Harry Reid could hardly get any farther from the jack rabbits and Joshua trees here.
But the higher he climbs, the more he says his heart returns.
"When I moved away from Searchlight I was kind of embarrassed about where I was from," said Reid, who was born there in 1939. His father was a gold miner, his mother took in laundry, mostly from the town's brothels.
Searchlight, population 1,000, is a pinprick in the Mojave Desert 55 miles south of Las Vegas. It boasts an elementary school, a post office, two small casinos, some long-dormant gold mines and, starting Tuesday, the Senate minority leader.
"He was born here. It's his home," said Judy Hill, a clerk at the post office. "He's always been one of us."
Today, Reid agrees.
"It took me awhile to appreciate who I was, where I came from. I think even in my early adulthood, Searchlight isn't the place that first came to the top of the conversation," he said. "But as the years rolled by, slowly and surely, I came to the realization that Searchlight is who I am."
Reid, formerly the Senate Democrats' second-in-command, was formally elected Tuesday by his colleagues to replace Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., as their leader when the new 109th Congress convenes in January. He agreed to an interview beforehand on condition it focus on his background, not his plans for the Democratic agenda.
In his 22 years in Congress, Reid has been a loyal though moderate Democrat who can play political hardball but also work closely with Republicans.
He helped encourage the 2001 departure of moderate Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., from the GOP, which gave Democrats Senate control for a year-and-a-half. A year ago, he staged a one-man, eight-and-a-half hour filibuster over majority Republicans' plans to use most of a week lambasting Democrats for blocking some of President Bush's judicial nominees.
As part of his delaying tactics, Reid read passages from a book he wrote on his hometown. His agenda as leader may end up owing something to his upbringing in poor, rural Nevada.
People in Searchlight describe Reid as a soft-spoken man whose quiet exterior hides a steely resolve. He is a plugger who says he's best described by words his high school football coach wrote in his yearbook: "To someone who never quit."
Beneath the high, wind-swept Searchlight desert, Reid watched his father drill and blast rocks for gold in mines that had mostly dried up years before. His father, a drinker, later committed suicide.
Mary Ann McInnis, a bartender at the Searchlight Nugget casino, attended elementary school with Reid, when he was known by his nickname "Pinky."
"I think he realized that there was a different way of life," she said.
Searchlight didn't have a high school, so Reid hitchhiked to Henderson, where he met his wife, Landra. Reid had been raised without religion and Landra's Jewish family didn't like the match, so the two eloped, later converting to Mormonism.
Reid worked his way through college, then law school in Washington as a Capitol Hill cop. He returned to Nevada as an attorney and started climbing the ranks in state politics, to lieutenant governor to congressman, then senator. He survived devastating losses and uncomfortably close victories, but he won a fourth Senate term with 61 percent of the vote Nov. 2, the same day Daschle lost his bid for a fourth term.
Reid has been a constant presence on the Senate floor, where he has protected his party's interests while also fostering relationships with Republican leaders. He knows how to cut deals with GOP colleagues, an art honed in part as a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which controls much federal spending.
Through it all, Reid would return to Searchlight to walk the cactus-dotted hills and breath the crisp, dry air.
"Anytime he'd have a big decision to make that's how he'd do it, just walking the hills," said Verlie Doing, the Searchlight Nugget's owner.
One of Reid's campaign signs hangs outside the Nugget: "Harry Reid, Independent Like Nevada."
There's no mention of his party, and for Reid, taking Daschle's job means he risks suffering Daschle's fate - getting demonized by Republicans and defeated in his home state, where Republicans slightly outnumber Democrats and Bush defeated John Kerry 50 percent to 48 percent.
Reid also must reconcile his own stances against abortion and some gun control laws with those of a Democratic caucus viewed as liberal. He said he's not worried, insisting he'll stay true to what he believes while representing the views of his caucus.
"My senators who support me know who I am. No one has to guess where I stand on issues," Reid said. "I'm going to do what I think is right."
People in Searchlight are proud of Reid. Residents like how he's fought against the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump planned 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas
People also like that Reid hasn't changed over the years, even as his political profile has far outgrown Searchlight.
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Reno Gazette-Journal
November 16, 2004
Reid to lead Senate´s Democrats
Nevadan praised as tough insider, consensus builder
Doug Abrahms
WASHINGTON — The new leader of Senate Democrats promised Tuesday to cooperate with President Bush and Senate Republicans to address high health-care costs but indicated he might fight on other issues such as privatizing Social Security.
“We are going to try to work with the president,’ said U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Reid, just elected to his fourth term, takes over for Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who lost his re-election race.
Reid will inherit a smaller Democratic contingent after his party lost four Senate seats Nov. 2. The Senate makeup — 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats and one independent — is the smallest representation for Democrats since 1931.
In a news conference Tuesday, Reid didn´t discuss specific issues and tried to avoid being seen as obstructionist, a label Republicans gave his predecessor, while also standing up for his party´s values.
Reid acknowledged that Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress and the White House, will set the agenda next year.
The Democratic agenda he laid out included raising the minimum wage, providing health care to more Americans and increasing funding for public schools.
Republicans in the past have opposed raising the minimum wage and support capping medical malpractice damages as one way to slow the rising cost of health care. Republicans have rejected Democratic complaints that the president´s key education initiative, the No Child Left Behind Act, was underfunded.
Reid declined to identify specific issues where Democrats would take a stand against Republicans.
At the top of the president´s agenda is making his earlier tax cuts permanent, an issue Reid didn´t mention.
The president also wants to privatize a portion of Social Security. Reid hinted that he wants to maintain Social Security generally the way it is.
The potential nomination of a new Supreme Court justice is expected to be a political flash point because of the continuing battle over a woman´s legal right to an abortion.
Reid pointed out that despite Republican complaints about Democrats blocking judicial appointments, the Senate approved 203 federal judges since 2001 and rejected only 10.
Reid emphasized his humble roots. He grew up in a house that lacked hot water in the small town of Searchlight and put himself through college.
“If I can make it in America, anyone can,’ Reid said. “We want people to have the same opportunities as I had.’
Reid, who has held his party´s No. 2 spot as minority whip since 1999, phoned senators at home the day after Daschle lost his re-election to line up support for his move up the ladder.
Senate Democrats officially chose him as their leader Tuesday during a private caucus meeting.
That Reid was not even challenged for the No. 1 spot shows that he knows his way around the Senate, said Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., a fellow Nevadan, who was Republican Party chairman during the 1980s.
Reid, a soft-spoken man who supports the right to bear arms and holds strong religious beliefs, will be more conservative than Daschle, said Fahrenkopf, who heads the American Gaming Association.
But Reid also is a good legislator, having served in the state Legislature, as Nevada lieutenant governor, and a federal lawmaker in the House and Senate, said Fahrenkopf, who has known Reid since 1968.
“What the Republicans and White House will learn about Harry … is Harry will keep his word,’ he said. “What you get with Harry is what I call quiet strength.’
Reid has achieved the highest position in the Senate for a Nevadan.
U.S. Sen. Paul Laxalt of Nevada was offered the spot of Senate majority leader after Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980 but turned it down, Fahrenkopf said.
“What Harry has accomplished, coming from a small state, is just a magnificent accomplishment,’ he said. “I think he´ll do a tremendous, tremendous job.’
How much Reid´s new position will help Nevada remains unclear, since he held a powerful position as minority whip, where he shepherded legislation on the Senate floor. Already, Reid has held up passage of an energy and water-spending bill because he wants to limit funding to the nuclear waste project at Yucca Mountain.
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Reno Gazette-Journal
November 16, 2004
Western concerns likely to get new consideration
Ben Kieckhefer
Western issues such as water, land ownership and mining should get expanded consideration in the U.S. Senate following Harry Reid´s election as Democratic leader, local politicians and analysts said Tuesday.
Backed by his Democratic colleagues during a closed-door session Tuesday, Nevada´s four-term senator became minority leader, positioning Reid to mold and implement the party´s agenda.
And while Reid will be the front man for the Democratic Party, his knowledge of Western issues will help ensure Nevada´s voice is heard when those issues arise. “I think that the higher the position or the more important the position that Nevada holds at the table, the greater our opportunities are to make sure Nevada is treated fairly,’ said U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Reno.
“Whether it´s mining or whether it´s public lands, whether it´s transportation funding, all of these issues are critical to Nevada,’ Gibbons said.
Gibbons also said Reid´s position could give Nevada´s congressional delegation a louder voice in the fight against the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project. Reid could try to remove funding for the project, resulting in delays that could give the state more time to mount objections, Gibbons said.
A Nevada issue Reid likely will bring to the forefront is the state´s relationship with the federal government on land ownership issues, said University of Nevada, Reno political science professor Eric Herzik. He said Reid has teamed with U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., to help solve property issues in the state where the federal government owns 87 percent of the land. That lack of private land ownership makes property tax revenues nearly nonexistent for some rural counties.
“Nevada´s often treated like a colonial possession, especially rural Nevada, and Reid will be able to, simply by position, force that issue to be looked at in a new way,’ Herzik said. Reid wouldn´t commit to what he hoped to accomplish for Nevada. He said that while he has little control over what issues are brought to the Senate floor because Republicans have the majority, he will help focus the discussion on issues important to Nevada when they do arise.
“For me to start talking about what I want to bring to the Senate floor is unrealistic, but I do say that when a land-use issue comes up, I will make sure Nevada´s issues are represented,’ Reid said.
Ensign said party influence is essential when a senator is trying to guide a bill through Congress, particularly for legislation that only affects one or a few states. He said Reid will be able to use that influence to make sure other senators don´t raise objections to bills important to Nevada.
“He personally has more staff, more people to watch things, so it´s nothing but a benefit when it comes to Nevada issues,’ Ensign said. “When it comes to the country´s issues, as far as the ability to work together between him and (Senate Majority Leader) Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) we´ll have to wait and see how that works out.’
While Reid´s position will give him greater strength in determining how the federal government works, it also will put him in the forefront of the party squabbles.
“It´s going to be a challenge for him … to balance his role as the minority party spokesman and then he´s still going to have to represent the views of his constituents, many of whom, the majority of us, support the president and his policies,’ state Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said.
Some Democrats will look to Reid to stand up against a conservative agenda they expect the president to push in the next two years.
“He´ll have to fight to keep extremists off the federal bench,’ said Washoe County Democratic Party Chairman Chris Wicker. “The extremists of the Republican Party want their payback, and they´re going to insist that right-wing judges be appointed, and I think Bush is going to accommodate that.’
Regardless of the politics, it´s helpful for a state to have a congressional leader because of the influence he can wield over policy and projects, said Republican political consultant Greg Ferraro of Reno.
“As leader of the minority, Sen. Reid´s in a great position to make sure Nevadans don´t get short shrift,’ Ferraro said. “Furthermore, I think Sen. Reid´s respected on both sides of the aisle … His reputation and his standing in the Senate can only help.’
The senator´s rise to the top leadership job is a natural progression for the seasoned Nevada politician, Herzik said.
“It is a big elevation because he now controls in a sense how the Democratic Party will play with the Republicans and even among themselves. So all those kind of inside political skills will be tested,’ Herzik said.
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Reno Gazette-Journal
November 16, 2004
VOICES
What Nevadans want from Minority Leader Harry Reid
What would you like to see U.S. Sen. Harry Reid do as Senate minority leader?
“I´d like to see Reid get rid of that crazy nuclear plant in Yucca Mountain, control gambling because there are a lot of people using all their paychecks. Or put them on a refuse type thing by limiting how much customers can spend and get rid of panhandlers who stand out and sit outside a casino.’
Fred Harris, 58, Reno resident and disabled veteran. Voted for Reid.
***
“I want him to make sure Yucca Mountain never goes through, and he never answered my question about whether he would support the Undentified Flying Object Disclosure Report when I contacted his office.’
Leilani Chirino, 38, Reno resident and designer/architect. Voted for Reid.
***
“He has to fix the roads for the old houses along Fourth Street and put lights on highways.’
Liezel Reyes, 24, Reno resident and business owner. Did not vote.
***
“I want him to make sure Yucca Mount doesn´t go, that´s why I voted for him.’
Judy Baden, 59, Reno resident and cosmetologist. Voted for Reid.
***
“Stop Yucca Mountain from being used for waste.’
Jo Ann Busam, 55, Reno resident and business owner. Voted for Reid.
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Indiana Digital Student
November 17, 2004
Nevada's Reid tapped to lead Senate Democratic caucus
Senator says Democrats will focus on health, education
By David Espo
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada won election as leader of the shrunken Democratic minority on Tuesday, and said he stands ready to cooperate with Republicans or confront them as he deems necessary.
"I always would rather dance than fight. But I know how to fight," he said at a news conference after the Democratic rank and file chose him leader for the Congress that convenes in January.
Reid said he and Democrats would stress expanded access to health care and increased support for education. "I believe in the minimum wage and we have to raise it," he said.
Reid also cautioned majority Republicans not to "mess with the rules" in the Senate by trying to make it easier to override Democratic objections to some of President Bush's judicial nominations.
He said the Senate had confirmed 203 of President Bush's court nominations over the past four years and blocked 10.
"I think they are crying wolf all too often," he said of Republicans who used the 10 thwarted nominations to label Democrats as obstructionists.
Reid takes command of a party that will have only 44 seats when the new Congress convenes in January, fewer than at any time since Herbert Hoover sat in the White House, according to records on the Senate's Web site. Republicans have 55 seats, and there is one independent. He succeeds Sen. Tom Daschle, who was defeated for re-election on Nov. 2 in South Dakota.
The 64-year-old Nevadan, who has long served as Daschle's second-in-command, was elevated to leader in a closed-door meeting of Democrats who will serve in the next Senate.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois was unopposed to replace Reid as the party's whip, the Democrat's second-ranking Senate leader.
Daschle has served as party leader since 1995, leading Democrats in periods in which they were in the minority, the majority and then back again.
There were other reminders of the Nov. 2 election as Democrats met in a historic room in the Capitol. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts participated in the session as he picked up his Senate duties two weeks after losing his bid for the White House.
Reid was nominated for the party leadership job by Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, who served in the post in the 1970s and 1980s. Seconding the nomination was Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who occasionally vexed Daschle by crossing party lines.
"I said he will lead this caucus into a new era and oppose where necessary, compromise where possible and avoid the obstructionist label," Nelson said of his closed-door remarks.
With the exception of abortion rights and gun control, both of which he opposes, Reid's recent voting record on major issues puts him in the mainstream of Senate Democrats.
"My senators who support me know who I am. No one has to guess where I stand on issues," Reid said in a recent interview. "I'm going to do what I think is right."
Reid, a veteran of 22 years in Congress, voted against President Bush's tax cuts in 2001 and opposed the final version of the administration's landmark Medicare overhaul legislation in 2003.
Like a majority of Democrats, he voted to give Bush authority to use military force to oust Iraq's Saddam Hussein, and he voted, many months later, to spend $87 billion to help pay the costs of military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Earlier this year, he helped bottle up a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages, and he sided with organized labor when it sought to make sure no worker lost overtime rights under new administration regulations.
He's also worked with environmentalists to block oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
He's been a loyal supporter of Democratic filibusters against 10 of Bush's judicial nominees deemed extremists by a coalition of civil rights, women's and other groups.
An early test of Reid's strategy is likely to come on judicial appointments, and, already, there is some pressure on him to stay the course set by Daschle.
While Democrats lost seats this fall, they have more than the 41 votes needed to block Bush's legislation or his judicial appointments if they remain united. At the same time, some Democrats have said their party will have to pick its fights more carefully.
Reid is a fierce opponent of the effort to build a repository for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in his home state and has used his seat on the Appropriations Committee to battle the administration.
Reid was first elected to the House in 1982, then won his Senate seat in 1986. Six years ago, he nearly lost a campaign for re-election, prevailing by only 428 votes. He won his fourth term far more easily two weeks ago.
Durbin, who celebrates his 60th birthday next week, served 14 years in the House before winning his Senate seat in 1996. He was re-elected in 2002 with 60 percent of the vote.
Democrats also were electing Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow as caucus secretary.
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Charlotte Observer
November 17, 2004
Storing nuclear waste
We must find safe, permanent solution, but it's not Yucca
From Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program in Washington:
Yucca Mountain is not the silver-bullet answer to our nation's nuclear waste dilemma (Nov. 7, "Store nuclear waste in Nevada"). In fact, it is riddled with problems.
First, Yucca Mountain sits atop a groundwater aquifer in an earthquake zone. Radioactive particles from atomic bomb tests conducted near Yucca have found their way through the rock to repository depth after only 50 years, not the thousands of years predicted. This suggests that the site leaks more than first thought.
Second, Yucca will not consolidate all of our nation's nuclear waste into one location. As long as we continue producing waste, we will always have dangerous quantities of it stored around the country. An average nuclear plant creates between 20 and 30 tons of high-level waste per year, and that waste must cool on site for at least five years before being moved anywhere.
Third, by the time Yucca could open in 2010, we already will have produced nearly the equivalent of its 77,000-ton capacity, which would put us right back to where we started: wondering what to do with lethal waste that remains radioactive for thousands of years.
All five of South Carolina's nuclear plants have been relicensed, which translates into 20 more years of waste. According to the Environmental Working Group, South Carolina will lead the country in the amount of nuclear waste still stored onsite after Yucca fills up -- 2,495 tons, which is nearly as much as the approximately 2,800 tons there now.
We owe it to future generations to find a safe, permanent solution, but Yucca is not the one.
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Reuters
US lawmakers work on huge spending bill
By Anna Willard
WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers are trying to resolve their differences and come up with a bill worth hundreds of billions of dollars before next week that will fit the year's spending within a White House-requested limit.
Congress only passed four of the 13 spending bills required to fund the federal government for the 2005 fiscal year that began Oct. 1 before breaking for the election. Lawmakers on the Republican-led appropriations panels in the House of Representatives and Senate are trying to wrap the outstanding bills into one big "omnibus" package.
"I'd like to get this finished this week," said Sen. Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The final package could see across-the-board cuts to the House and Senate versions of the nine spending bills as passed by committees in both chambers to increase funding for Bush Administration initiatives such as foreign aid and space programs.
As part of its effort to rein in the record budget deficit, the Bush Administration would like to keep overall discretionary spending -- outlays excluding automatic payments such as Social Security and Medicare -- at $821.9 billion in the 2005 fiscal year.
But the Senate versions of the remaining bills would put such spending around $8 billion over that limit.
There are also numerous policy differences between the House and Senate versions of the bills that must be worked out but lawmakers say they are making good progress toward an agreement.
NINE BILLS TO DO
"Of the nine bills we have to deal with, there are only about three that have sticky problems," said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, a Florida Republican.
The Senate foreign aid bill only provided $1.12 billion for President George W. Bush's new aid initiative, the Millennium Challenge Account, far below the $2.5 billion he requested. The House only allocated $1.25 billion for the program which aims to encourage political and economic reforms in poor countries.
Arizona Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe, the chairman of the House foreign operations appropriations subcommittee, said he is hopeful the account will get $1.5 billion in the omnibus bill, with the increase paid for with cuts from other programs.
Another outstanding issue is a dispute over funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site in Nevada. Opponents of the plan would like to choke off funding for the massive storage facility planned in the desert about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. That could keep the energy and water appropriations bill out of the omnibus if it is not resolved.
Other issues that must be sorted out include language on Bush's overtime regulations, travel restrictions to Cuba, aid for Saudi Arabia, government contracts for offshore companies, and on a milk subsidy for dairy farmers.
The four bills that already passed fund defense, homeland security, the District of Columbia and military construction in the 2005 fiscal year.
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San Francisco Chronicle
November 17, 2004
Abraham won't be missed
David Lazarus
Californians take energy very seriously. We pay the highest gas prices in the nation, and we're a leader in trying to balance economic needs with environmental considerations.
We also got royally hosed a few years ago when Enron and its corporate cronies turned our utility bills into an all-you-can-eat buffet.
So it's with little regret that we bid sayonara to U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, possibly the least qualified person ever to fill the post.
Abraham announced his resignation from the Bush administration on Monday, along with several other Cabinet members, including Secretary of State Colin Powell (whose departure monopolized all the headlines).
Perhaps the best thing that can be said about Abraham's tenure as cheerleader in chief for the administration's pro-industry, anti-environment energy policy is that, in the end, he failed to get very much done.
"His time in office was a disaster," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a left-leaning Washington think tank. "Four wasted years."
Well, maybe that's a little harsh. But the list of Abraham's accomplishments is slim indeed.
In his resignation letter to President Bush, released by the Department of Energy, Abraham cited a handful of outstanding achievements:
-- "Since 2001 we have developed the nation's first comprehensive energy plan in over a decade," he wrote. (Abraham neglected to say that he's been unable to get the plan approved by Congress.)
-- "We have launched the most ambitious new energy technology initiatives in the world," he wrote, citing administration backing for hydrogen as a fuel source. (Abraham didn't mention that hydrogen-powered vehicles remain many years from widespread use.)
-- "We have pressed ahead with the Yucca Mountain project," he wrote. (Abraham overlooked that the proposed Nevada repository for nuclear waste is stalled amid funding and environmental concerns.)
-- "We have ... significantly reduced the timeframe needed to secure Russia's nuclear materials," he wrote. (Abraham omitted the fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency estimates that as many as 110 countries do not have adequate safeguards for radioactive materials.)
Meanwhile, Abraham's watch as energy secretary included the California energy crisis (and subsequent financial fallout for the state), the Enron debacle, the bankruptcy of PG&E, the worst blackout in U.S. history, and record oil and gas prices.
It also included a steady decline in average fuel efficiency of U.S. vehicles, increased oil imports, abandonment of the Kyoto Treaty on cutting greenhouse gas emissions and a steadfast insistence that no scientific proof exists for global warming (even though most scientists say otherwise).
"I can only hope the next energy secretary will do more to push the administration toward a more responsible climate-change policy," said Nigel Purvis, an environmental scholar at the Brookings Institution who served in the Bush administration in 2001 as deputy assistant secretary of state.
Abraham was tapped by Bush to be energy secretary despite having virtually no experience in the field.
His most prominent brush with energy prior to his appointment came during his sole term in the U.S. Senate, when he twice co-sponsored legislation to close the Energy Department as part of efforts to streamline the federal bureaucracy.
Abraham told an interviewer in 1997 that he was "elected to make government smarter and more efficient." His attempts to eliminate the Energy Department failed both times.
As a senator, Abraham also twice co-sponsored bills calling for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and opposed raising fuel-efficiency standards for the auto industry. He voted against $62 million in funding for solar and other renewable energy sources.
The League of Conservation Voters, an environmental advocacy group, made Abraham its main target for defeat in 2000. The organization said he accepted more than $700,000 in campaign contributions from polluting industries and interests.
Abraham also accepted thousands of dollars in donations from the nuclear industry for his failed re-election bid. As energy secretary, he was a staunch advocate for the industry's interests.
Joe Colvin, head of the Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade group, was effusive in his praise for Abraham this week.
"His legacy will be one of vision, leadership and service to the nation in advancing energy policies and programs that recognize the vital role of nuclear power as part of a diverse portfolio that enhances energy security, economic growth and our nation's environmental well-being," Colvin said in a statement.
Roger Ballentine, president of Green Strategies, an environmentally minded energy consulting firm, said it's difficult to see Abraham's tenure as anything but a complete failure.
"But energy policy in this administration was not controlled by the energy secretary," he said. "It was controlled by the White House in general and Vice President Dick Cheney in particular.
"In that sense," Ballentine added, "it's not clear that Spencer Abraham ever had a chance."
Nor is it clear how things will be any different for his successor.
--David Lazarus' column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He also can be seen regularly on KTVU's "Mornings on 2." Send tips or feedback to dlazarus@sfchronicle.com.
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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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