Yucca Mountain News Clips
Monday, November 29, 2004
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Las Vegas SUN
November 29, 2004
Yucca standard won't be appealed
EPA may have to develop new radiation guidelines
By Suzanne Struglinski
<suzanne@lasvegassun.com>
Sun Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The Nuclear Energy Institute will not ask the Supreme Court to review a federal appeals court ruling that threw out a radiation protection standard for the Yucca Mountain project.
The decision by the institute, the nuclear industry's lobbying arm, means that the appellate court ruling stands. The only way that will change is if Congress passes a law changing the standard or upholding the previous standard.
Otherwise, the Environmental Protection Agency will have to develop a new standard, as ordered by the court.
Either option will take some time, experts said, which will cause further delays in the project. The Energy Department wanted to submit its license application for the nuclear waste repository, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, at the end of the year, but officials said last week it would not reach that goal.
Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval said NEI's decision "reinforces the argument that our legal victory was impervious to appeal." He said the court's decision last summer was significant because the EPA and the Energy Department will "have to go back to the drawing boards" to establish new radiation standards.
NEI intended to go to the high court, but its lawyers evaluated a wide variety of things before making the decision not to file the request, said Mitch Singer, spokesman for the industry's lobbying group. He said that after the U.S. solicitor general decided not to move forward with a Supreme Court request for review, the group's lawyers knew the chances of its case being brought up were not great.
Singer said nothing has been decided yet on whether NEI will push Congress to revise the radiation standard.
All parties involved in this phase of Yucca litigation had until today to decide whether to go to the Supreme Court.
It was "highly unlikely" the Supreme Court would have agreed to consider NEI's case, UNLV Boyd School of Law professor Bret Birdsong said.
The court would question why an industry party was appealing the case and not the EPA -- the federal agency that set the standard at issue, Birdsong said. The absence of the solicitor general's interest in handling the appeal would significantly hurt the chances of this case being accepted by the court, Birdsong said. The solicitor general manages U.S. government cases in the Supreme Court.
"It really is primarily the government's interest at stake under the law," Birdsong said.
NEI would have faced a costly, uphill battle if it had attempted an appeal. It's extremely difficult to convince the Supreme Court to even consider a case. Each year the court typically agrees to take only about 100 to 120 cases out of 7,000 to 8,000 it receives.
The decision ends some lingering uncertainty about the status of the radiation protection standard.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled on July 9 the Environmental Protection Agency did not follow the law when it established a 10,000-year standard, largely because it did not accept the National Academy of Sciences recommendation of a far higher standard, perhaps 300,000 years.
The court ruling threw out the standard and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's corresponding licensing rule using the 10,000 year-standard but under court rules, it would be kept in place until all parties finished requests for appeals. The Energy Department continuing working on the project and said nothing had changed.
But the appeals court rejected NEI's request for rehearing and its request to keep the standard in place until the Supreme Court would evaluate the case. Nevada and the federal agencies involved did not file any appeals.
Energy Department spokesman Joe Davis has said the department will follow whatever standard it needs to protect human health and safety. The EPA has said it is looking at the issue but has not said anything specific on how it will move ahead with creating a new standard.
Attorney Joe Egan, who represents Nevada on Yucca issues, said creating a new standard on average can take two years but this one could take longer. The academy's radiation standard recommendation came out in 1995 and the EPA did not finalize the rule until 2001. Egan said the agency will have to announce a schedule, issue a proposed rule and go through several other "hoops" before a new standard would be put in place.
But while the agency was working on a new standard, Congress could decide to allow the old one to stay in place.
Rumors circulated earlier this month that the White House proposed Congress keep the standard in place through a massive spending bill it had to pass. The Office of Management and Budget denied such a request and said the president said the administration would live with the court decision.
The spending bill did not include the option but Yucca critics will watch Congress closely next year to see if the option comes up.
Sandoval said an attempt in Congress to establish the radiation standards "will not be sponsored by the (Bush) administration," he said. "The president said he would be respectful of the court decision."
Egan said the idea would be hard to pass, even for those who support Yucca.
"It's one thing for a majority of senators to site a repository, but it's another thing to get a majority to say site a repository notwithstanding the National Academy of Sciences and a decision by the second highest court," Egan said. "It will be very hard to get those kinds of votes."
If the change does come through Congress, members would have to know it is more than a Yucca Mountain issue, said Amy Spanbauer, spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. She said it set a precedent for Congress to change environmental standards and overturn court cases. Gibbons would look at every avenue to stop the change, she said.
Adam Mayberry, spokesman for Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., said the congressman knows there are Democrats and Republicans who support moving nuclear waste to Yucca and he would do all he could to make sure they know the dangers associated with it.
Egan said if Congress would agree to change the standard, it could reopen the state's constitutional challenge against the project.
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Las Vegas SUN
November 27, 2004
Where I Stand -- Brian Greenspun: Celebrating youth
Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.
Weekend Edition
November 27 - 28, 2004
Giving thanks for the voices of our youth.
Thanksgiving is my favorite time of the year. Families come together to do what families do best -- eat. Friends gather together to count their blessings. Retailers get whole, especially after dismal sales reports for preceding months. And Christmas and Chanukah are right around the corner, which means children will be smiling and the adults will finally get into better moods. However temporary that may be.
There is another reason why I look forward to Thanksgiving week. That is the time when the Las Vegas Sun Youth Forum takes place, just as it has done for the past 49 years. I don't know of another youth-oriented program in the country that has lasted as long and been as successful as the Youth Forum. I believe it owes its longevity to one simple principle, and that is that on Youth Forum Day the teenagers do the talking and the adults do the listening.
It is a formula that has worked ever since the first group of Las Vegas high school students gathered together to tell the rest of the world what they thought. I thought of those early days just before I addressed the 1,000 or so students from more than 40 high schools in Clark County this past Tuesday. As one of the adult moderators who contribute their time to lead the discussion groups, I had noticed one of the proposed topics for my group, which was named "Home In Nevada," was a club for kids under 21.
It just so happens that the first accomplishment of the first Las Vegas Sun Youth Forum was a club for students under the age of 21. In those days there were less than a handful of high schools, which meant that there were very few students gathered to discuss what was on their minds.
Foremost among their grievances (which will tell you how much easier life was in those days) was that there was no place where underage young adults could go for recreation on weekends. The hotels, like they are today, were off-limits to those not yet 21, and there were very few, if any, alternatives to risking juvenile hall in order to dance or otherwise congregate. The Wildcat Lair was the result of that first Youth Forum as the adults, especially the sheriff, who was concerned about curfew violations and too many teenagers on what was then a growing Strip, paid attention and acted on what they heard. And they have been listening ever since.
One thing I learned at the forum is that with all the changes that Las Vegas has experienced over the past 50 years, there still remains a need for places for young adults to enjoy each other's company and let off a little steam. We have traveled far in our evolution toward being the Entertainment Capital of the World, but not so far that we can afford to forget the necessities of our young people who are struggling with the challenges of growing up.
There was something else I learned this past week. Something that has given me reason to believe that our best days are still ahead of us, and that despite the world we have created for our children and the difficulties that abound, they will endure, they will prosper and they will succeed. One of the other topics the kids discussed was the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.
Unfortunately, it was one of my favorite topics to explore and one about which I am quite passionate. I was determined to find out the level of passion that existed in this group. After all, it is true that young people often mirror the thoughts and ideas of their parents -- until they reach the age of reason and either accept them, discard them completely or temper them with their own views of the world in which they must live -- so listening to these young people would give me an idea of how the adults really think. Or so I thought.
I first polled the group to determine how many of them wanted the dump at Yucca Mountain. Only a couple of hands went up. Then I asked how many thought the dump was coming and that there was nothing they could do about it. Almost all of the hands went up. OK, I thought, if this is how they think -- actually, what their parents think -- then this should be an interesting discussion. Some of the kids expressed the belief that the dump was very bad for people living not only in Las Vegas but also throughout the country, especially along the proposed truck and train routes that will bring the high-level radioactive waste to Nevada. They also said they didn't want to live in this town if the possibility of a spill could hurt them or their children.
But, having said all that, they were still resigned to the idea that they could do nothing. After considerable discussion around the room, it was understood that what they were expressing was their parents views and that they -- their generation and the next -- would have to pay the price for the adults' attitude of acquiescence. This they did not want to do. After sharing a number of ideas they came up with a plan of action. It is centered on the Internet and the belief that young people everywhere have a stake in nuclear waste policy.
I have to say that this was the first time in all the years that I have been moderating at the Youth Forum that I actually witnessed a call to arms right then and there. And I have to say it was the highlight of my day. It not only told me that today's young people are very serious about their futures but that they also are willing to act, which is very different from the role their parents have played, which has been to give lip service but little else.
So you see, there is much for which we should be thankful in Nevada. At the top of the list must be healthy families. But right behind that blessing is that we have a new generation of Nevadans who are willing to fight hard for their futures. No matter what their parents say!
Happy Thanksgiving.
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Las Vegas SUN
November 29, 2004
Letter: Dangers of Yucca dump cannot be underestimated
I'm responding to an article you published Nov. 4 headlined, "GOP: Yucca not a strong enough issue." It quoted some state Republicans as saying that, as a ballot issue, voters did not regard Yucca Mountain as very important. Yucca Mountain, of course, is the site in Southern Nevada where the federal government wants to permanently bury the nation's high-level nuclear waste.
Personally, I don't know how anyone can ignore the Yucca Mountain issue. Las Vegas will most certainly become a nuclear disaster area if we let this happen. Shipments to Yucca Mountain will make a fine target for terrorists. To derail a train or attack a truck would not be that difficult.
John Kerry objected to Yucca Mountain because he was for Nevada.
All the people in Northern Nevada who voted for President Bush may think they're safe because they are hundreds of miles from Yucca Mountain. Well, shame on them.
Ingrid R. Morris
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Reno Gazette-Journal
November 28, 2004
Reid now the face of Senate Democrats
Minority leader´s behind-the-scenes political skill could help party
Doug Abrahms
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Harry Reid showed his mastery of Senate procedure this past week by pushing his staff member onto the Nuclear Regulatory Commission´s board despite opposition by both the White House and many Senate Republicans.
Reid will need that kind of political skill when he takes over in January as leader of the Senate Democrats. He will be put in a precarious political position — his predecessor lost re-election — as head of a party that lost four Senate seats Nov. 2 and has less clout in a government dominated by Republicans.
But Reid, just re-elected to a fourth six-year term, said he can continue to work with Republican lawmakers and for Nevada constituents on many issues.
“We´re ready to work with the majority, but we´re not going to be pushed around,’ said Reid, a one-time amateur boxer. “We have to make sure we have to pick fights we can win.’
The party is struggling with its direction after November´s election losses and can use a leader like Reid who is moderate and not considering a run for president, said Eric Herzik, a Republican and political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.
“Reid can give the Democrats some breathing space while they figure out what their message is to the rest of the country,’ Herzik said. “I think he´s the right guy for the Democratic Party at this time. He knows how to play this game behind the scenes.’
The NRC board appointment is one example of the way Reid plays the game.
Reid held up approval for 175 Bush administration nominees for federal positions until his staff adviser Gregory Jaczko, who has a doctorate in physics, was given a temporary seat on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The commission will soon start reviewing the application to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, which Reid opposes.
“Reid is really one of the people that understands how the process works,’ said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University who specializes in Congress. “Although his manner is low key and deferential, he´s a tough character and a hard bargainer.’
Party´s face
Reid will become one of the main faces of the Democratic Party when he takes over in January from Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle.
That can be politically dangerous when your party is out of power. Daschle lost re-election in South Dakota to John Thune, a Republican strongly backed by the White House.
Daschle was labeled an obstructionist by Republicans. And he was forced to take positions in support of Senate Democrats that sometimes conflicted with interests of South Dakotans, said University of South Dakota political science professor Bill Richardson.
“I think what happened to Tom Daschle is a cautionary tale to Sen. Reid,’ Richardson said.
“(Senate Democrats) are not supposed to be a rubber stamp, but given the acute partisanship that´s going on now and the inevitable hostilities between the parties that will play itself out in the Senate … I think Senator Reid is in for some really nasty fights,’ he said.
Like Daschle, Reid is more liberal than most voters he represents, Herzik said.
But unlike Daschle, Reid cruised through his re-election this month with 61 percent of the vote — by far the largest margin of victory in his four Senate races.
Reid has shown balance in environmental issues, for example, because he is able to maintain support of environmentalists while also helping the mining industry, Herzik said.
Impact on Nevada
Reid doesn´t expect his new position to significantly change work on Nevada issues. He plans to continue to oppose Yucca Mountain, and will fight to bring federal money to Lake Tahoe and slow the increase in royalty fees mining companies pay the federal government.
Nevada first-term U.S. Sen. John Ensign, a Republican, said Reid´s elevation to minority leader can only help the Silver State.
“My experience with Sen. Reid is if you have the right relationship with him, you can get things done,’ he said. “In the past, when he´s given me his word, he´s kept his word.’
Reid has spent nearly all his adult life in Nevada politics, starting as a city attorney in Henderson and becoming the state´s youngest lieutenant governor at 30. He has been representing Nevada in Congress and then in the Senate since 1983.
For the past six years, he has been the party´s No. 2 leader in the Senate. As minority whip, his job was to round up votes for legislation.
Whether that behind-the-scenes expertise will make him a good front man for the Democrats remains to be seen, Ensign said.
Democrats´ agenda
Senate Republicans will be bolder next year because they will have 55 votes instead of 51, but they still lack the 60 votes needed to end debate on legislation, Ensign said.
Reid isn´t specifying which issues Senate Democrats plan to highlight next year, noting that the agenda in Washington will be set by Republicans, who control the White House and both houses of Congress.
He said the Bush administration will have to confront several problems it has created, including:
* A huge budget deficit,
* More funding to implement Bush´s No Child Left Behind Act education reform law, and
* The war in Iraq.
U.S. troops will have to remain in Iraq for years, said Reid, who voted for the resolution to give Bush authority to invade Iraq.
“I voted to go into Iraq. The problem is the plan was faulty,’ Reid said. “But I think we have to stay there and win.’
Senate Democrats must do a better job defining who they represent, Reid said, as well as getting their message across.
For example, despite approving 206 federal judges and blocking only 10, Senate Democrats were labeled obstructionists, Reid said.
“One of the myths out there is Democrats have held up the president´s judges,’ Reid said. “We haven´t done that.’
“I don´t think (Democrats) need to change,’ he said. “I think we need to project who we are better.’
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
November 27, 2004
Editorial: An advocate for openness
Brian Sandoval's replacement should be supportive of public access to government
Gov. Kenny Guinn has plenty of qualities in mind as he considers a replacement for outgoing Attorney General Brian Sandoval, who was tapped for a federal judgeship.
Gov. Guinn is looking for a Republican, a given considering he and Mr. Sandoval are both members of the GOP. He wants someone who can raise the money needed to run for election in 2006, when Mr. Sandoval's current term expires. And he wants someone capable of winning the state's legal fight against the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
Something else should be at the top of his criteria: ardent support of the state's open meeting law and open records law.
In just two years as the state's top law enforcement official, Mr. Sandoval established himself as a staunch advocate of open government. He was appropriately stern with the university system's Board of Regents after they repeatedly slammed doors on the public and attempted to defy court orders.
The state's next attorney general, who likely won't be appointed until spring, will have no duty more important than ensuring the public has unfettered access to government business. For any hint of weakness on this issue will send every elected official in Nevada with a proclivity for secrecy scurrying out of the sunshine of democracy and into the shadows.
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Las Vegas Review-Journal
November 27, 2004
Energy efforts close to starting
State program will help fund solar, wind farm projects
By John G. Edwards
Review-Journal
Two developers said Friday they are getting closer to beginning construction on separate alternate energy projects that will take advantage of a new state program.
Developers of Solargenix Energy, a planned 50-megawatt solar thermal project in the Eldorado Valley, and Ely Wind, a proposed 50-megawatt wind farm in Northern Nevada, have applied for approval under a new state program that makes it easier for them to get financing.
Solargenix hopes to obtain financing by March and start construction of the solar thermal plant, said Gary Bailey, a local executive with the company. The facility will use troughs that reflect sunlight and heat on to a fluid-filled pipe that will spin a turbine to generate power.
Bailey declined to specify the cost of the project but estimated it will be 12 to 18 months before the plant can start providing solar power to Nevada Power Co.
Ely Wind is planned for the top of Eagan Mountain, which is 40 miles north of Ely. The partnership has obtained financing from Babcock & Brown and National Power for the $50 million to $60 million project, said Tim Carlson, general partner of Ely Wind and owner of Carlson & Associates.
Carlson's partnership is collecting wind data to ascertain the best location for the wind turbines. He expects the wind turbines to be completed by 2006.
The power will be sold to Sierra Pacific Power Co. of Reno, but Nevada Power will get the renewable credits that can be used to comply with the state's renewable portfolio standard. The state law requires the utilities to obtain an increasing amount of renewable energy until it represents 15 percent of their total power sales by 2013.
Nevada Power and Sierra signed contracts to buy renewable energy from several companies, but some complained they couldn't obtain financing because of the utilities' low, junk-bond level ratings and investor fears that the utilities might file for bankruptcy and cancel power contracts.
Richard Burdette, energy adviser to Gov. Kenny Guinn, coordinated efforts to establish a Temporary Renewable Energy Development program, to help resolve the financial problems. The program calls for creation of a trust that Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific would fund. The trust then would provide those funds to owners of renewable power plants.
State officials believe the trust will provide some protection for green power plant owners in case the utilities, which will be the main customer, were to file for bankruptcy and have to cancel their power purchase contracts.
Ely Wind and Solargenix are seeking approval to participate in the trust program, and the Public Utilities Commission has scheduled a prehearing conference on Dec. 6 on their applications.
Ormat, which is owned by a similarly named Israeli company, is proceeding with plans to build 22 more megawatts of generating capacity in the so-called Steamboat Springs area south of Reno. It will supply the power to Sierra Pacific Power, but it has not asked to participate in the trust program.
Powerlight, a company headquartered in Berkley, Calif., has entered a contract to build a $22 million, 3.1-megawatt photovoltaic power plant for the Las Vegas Valley Water District. Photovoltaic panels convert sunlight directly into electricity. Under the arrangement, credits for the project will be sold to Nevada Power for compliance with the renewable energy law if the Public Utilities Commission approves the deal.
In another development, Clear Power Corp. of Calgary, Canada, is preparing to set up solar power plant development operations in Las Vegas, said Jeff Brown, a consultant to the company. Through a subsidiary to be called Kenetixx, the company plans to develop a 500-megawatt wind farm on federal land in Southern Nevada. It intends to complete the project by the end of 2005, he said.
Separately, Energy Nevada Partners of Carson City and Nordic Windpower of Scotland and Sweden announced an agreement to establish Nordic's U.S. wind power manufacturing plant in Northern Nevada. The agreement, however, is tentative.
It says that Nordic will start making wind turbines "as soon as a Nevada wind energy project of sufficient size is committed to construction," according to the Nevada Appeal.
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Intellivu
November 27, 2004
Gramm For Treasury
Robert Novak
WASHINGTON -- With Treasury Secretary John Snow's continuation in office uncertain, the White House is seriously considering former Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas as his possible successor.
President Bush has never been an intimate of Gramm's, and did not think of him for Treasury four years ago when he made the disastrous choice of industrialist Paul O'Neill. However, according to sources close to the president, he is giving his fellow Texan a serious look this time. Gramm is now an investment banker.
Snow at the Treasury has been a hard worker who loyally presses the Bush program. However, there are complaints inside and outside the administration that the ex-railroad executive is not equipped for many Treasury duties, especially international monetary affairs. Gramm is a Ph.D. in economics and a former professor.
9/11 Maneuvers
Contrary to Capitol Hill rumors, House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner did not reject President Bush's plea to yield on the 9/11 intelligence reform bill. Instead, they agreed on a compromise that was rebuffed by senators.
Bush, on his way to Chile, telephoned Sensenbrenner and asked him, because of Senate opposition, to drop the provision forbidding driver's licenses to illegal aliens. Sensenbrenner agreed, in return for the president's approval of other immigration and law enforcement provisions. However, Sen. Susan Collins, the lead senator on the 9/11 Senate-House conference, refused to go along.
As a result, the conferees accepted a bill similar to the Senate version that is dead on arrival in the House. Speaker Dennis Hastert pulled the bill last weekend after the House Republican Conference expressed opposition. Congress will try again to agree after it returns following Thanksgiving.
Cutting Spending
To show that President Bush is serious about reducing government spending, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is asking government departments to propose deep cuts.
Each agency is supposed to prepare a budget 5 percent lower than last year's request for all non-Defense and non-Homeland Security spending. They also are preparing an extreme ("nuclear") option proposing 10 percent reductions.
A footnote: As expected, President Bush has retained Joshua Bolten as OMB director. That is another disappointment for outgoing conservative Rep. Patrick Toomey, who lost his campaign to oust Sen. Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania primary after Bush supported Specter. Toomey, a strong fiscal conservative, wanted the OMB post.
Harry Reid Wins
Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, who will become Democratic leader in the next Congress, won a battle of wills in the lame-duck session by getting his science adviser, Gregory Jaczko, a seat on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) without being confirmed by the Senate.
Jaczko, a 34-year-old physicist, like Reid opposes the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. With Jaczko opposed by the nuclear industry and nearly all Republican senators, Reid in retaliation held up dozens of President Bush's nominations in the lame-duck session.
Reid released his hold after the White House agreed to put Jaczko on the NRC with a recess nomination made when Congress is not in session. That will not please Sen. James Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, who refused to give Jaczko a hearing. According to administration sources, Yucca Mountain will not be taken up during the first of Jaczko's two years on the NRC.
Chafee´s Critics
Sen. Lincoln Chafee, who declared he was not voting for George W. Bush's re-election and considered leaving the Republican Party, may face trouble in Rhode Island's 2006 GOP primary.
Chafee's conduct upset Rhode Island Republicans, who may support Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey in a possible Senate bid. Laffey, who describes himself as a populist and is more conservative than Chafee, won re-election by a landslide in heavily Democratic Cranston after cleaning up its finances.
Independent voters, comprising about half of Rhode Island's electorate, can vote in the Republican primary to save Chafee. But many will be attracted to a multi-candidate Democratic contest to oppose conservative Republican Gov. Donald Carcieri.
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Washington Times
November 27, 2004
Congress spending increase criticized
By Donald Lambro
The Republican Congress is getting flak for a 4 percent discretionary spending increase, fattened by a pork-stuffed omnibus appropriations bill that President Bush is expected to sign soon, as White House officials hint of tighter nondefense expenditures to come in next year's budget.
The temporarily stalled $388 billion catch-all spending bill that goes to Mr. Bush's desk sometime early next month will fund 13 departments and dozens of agencies for the rest of the 2004-05 fiscal year, resulting overall in lower nonmilitary, nonhomeland-defense spending increases than the president's previous budgets.
But critics point to $15.8 billion in pork-barrel spending that Mr. Bush did not seek — including 11,000 earmarked items like $350,000 for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland — and the failure to eliminate perceived wasteful, low-priority programs.
"This year's appropriations are 4.5 percent higher than last year and, sadly, this represents substantial progress," said Brian Riedl, chief budget analyst at the Heritage Foundation. "But even this amount does not include money for Iraq and Afghanistan, billions for hurricane relief and other spending classified as emergencies to evade budget caps.
"The best that Congress could do was to freeze many of the worst-performing programs in this bill; but there are billions of dollars in wasteful, unnecessary programs that should be eliminated in order to finance higher priority spending for defense and homeland security," Mr. Riedl said.
At the beginning of the year, Mr. Bush called for a 4 percent cap on nondefense funding and even Mr. Riedl, one of the president's severest spending critics, said, "I'll have to give credit where credit is due — freezing nondefense discretionary programs is better than the large increases they've received in recent years.
Paul Guessing, government affairs director of the National Taxpayers Union, said the bill "may not be an outright disaster compared to some of its all-too-numerous predecessors, but the legislation still has many drawbacks that earn it the title of 'debacle.' "
Administration budget officials said that while more remains to be done to reduce discretionary spending, this year's budget significantly has curtailed spending from previously higher levels that occurred during the president's first three years in office.
"Overall discretionary spending grew by only 4 percent in fiscal year 2005. That's all four of the appropriations bills that have been passed, plus the omnibus bill and defense and homeland-security spending," said Tad Kolton, spokesman for White House Budget Director Josh Bolten.
"The president said we are going to spend what it takes on defense and homeland security. If you take those two areas out of the equation and focus on the remaining part of the budget, then nondefense, nonhomeland-security discretionary spending grew by approximately 1 percent, which is half the rate of inflation and is among the lowest spending growth rates since the Republicans took over Congress in 1995," Mr. Kolton said.
But with his re-election behind him, administration insiders say Mr. Bush intends to tighten overall nondefense spending when he proposes his budget early next year for the 2006 fiscal period, which begins next October, targeting low-priority agencies and programs that do not work.
"The budget is shaping up but final decisions haven't been made," Mr. Kolton said. "We're going to continue to restrain the growth in spending. We're evaluating where the priorities are going to be next year and which programs are not producing results or are duplicative or redundant or simply are not priorities relative to other programs."
Other budget officials who did not want to talk on the record said that there was much that Mr. Bush did not like in the pending 1,000-page, omnibus spending bill, particularly the large number of pork-barrel spending provisions, but that he was willing to sign the measure in exchange for overall lower discretionary spending.
To keep to a 4 percent overall spending cap, congressional appropriators made spending cuts in a broad range of areas. For example, Small Business Administration loan subsidies were terminated, $303 million was cut from the nuclear waste facility in Yucca Mountain, Nev., and $612 million was carved out of the Environmental Protection Agency's budget.
But some of Mr. Bush's spending critics expressed increased hope that he will cut deeper in his future budgets.
"Bush has a good record of keeping campaign promises. In 2000, candidate Bush never promised to retrain spending but in 2004 he did and that may be the difference. The White House seems to be looking at budget savings for their fiscal 2006 proposal," Mr. Riedl said.
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Pahrump Valley Times
November 26, 2004
Yucca Mountain tactics failed to sway electorate
By ART BALL
Now that the election is over, maybe some of our congressional delegation will realize that Yucca Mountain is not the most important consideration for the Nevada electorate. It seems that all four who were running for national office did their best to scare everyone with bogeyman half-truths and outright lies, then promised to save everyone.
I was seriously considering voting for Harry Reid until his last-ditch ads, which essentially said that he was failing in his drive to scare everyone, but he'd save us anyway! These ads were not coincidentally timed to coincide with the lies about all shipments being targeted through Las Vegas neighborhoods. WOW! And, why did someone who was essentially unopposed have to resort to these antics?
Yucca Mountain could be located in Arizona, California or Utah and be closer to Las Vegas than it actually is! Would our congressional delegation, our governor and the mayor of Las Vegas, be as hysterical about their opposition in this case? I think not!
So, why are these politicians so opposed? It's payback for the Bullfrog County fiasco that occurred during the Test Site days. They stole all the PETT and PILT funds from Nye County then, and they're upset that they won't be allowed to do it again!
What I don't understand is why Mr. Gibbons has aligned himself with the other six. They represent Clark County. Mr. Gibbons is supposed to represent the other 16 Nevada counties. Nye County is in Gibbons' congressional district, but he has aligned himself with the Clark County politicians.
The fact is, spent nuclear fuel has been transported across the United States since the first time the nuclear powered submarine, USS Nautilus, refueled. Radioactive material shipments are on the streets of Clark County dozens, if not hundreds, of times a day going to and from hospitals and laboratories. Why don't our politicians try to scare the populace about these shipments?
I support the establishment of the Yucca Mountain Repository for several reasons. First of all, I have every confidence that the technology will advance during the next 10,000 years, so that the repository will not be a problem toward the end of its expected life.
If not, our descendants will be living in caves, and exposure to ionizing radiation will be the least of their worries. Secondly, the nuclear power industry has been paying into the fund to establish this repository for more than 20 years.
If our politicians succeed in their misguided efforts, Nevada will be a primary defendant in the massive lawsuits that are sure to follow. Thirdly, Nye County certainly needs the PETT and PILT funds that the repository will bring.
Don't get me wrong - I do have problems with the transportation of spent nuclear fuel in large quantities, but I believe that these problems can be overcome. I have a much greater problem with the permanent storage of this spent fuel at more than 100 locations around the country.
Do we have to wait until Mr. bin Laden's associates attack dozens of these locations at the same time, and successfully take possession of a few?
Remember, they don't care if most of them receive lethal doses of exposure or bullets. If only a small percentage of the radicals are successful, their mission has been accomplished.
I believe the spent nuclear fuel can be better protected and defended at Yucca Mountain than where it is now.
Maybe now that the election is over, the Clark County politicians will stop trying to screw Nye County.
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Pahrump Valley Times
November 26, 2004
Nye to study Yucca rail line
PVT
Nye County has recently initiated a study to identify the potential economic benefits or disadvantages of the construction of a railroad between Caliente, in Lincoln County, and the Yucca Mountain Repository in Amargosa Valley.
This study is funded by the Department of Energy and the study findings will be an important contribution to the Nye County economic development plan.
Although contractors employed by Nye County will be conducting the study, the examination will also investigate impacts in Lincoln and Esmeralda counties.
The contractors are experts in constructing rail lines and the commercial uses of rail transportation. This study is one of several joint initiatives being discussed with representatives of Esmeralda and Lincoln counties.
The economic impacts study is a continuation of evaluations undertaken by Nye County in recent years to understand the pros and cons of this proposed rail line. Commissioners and Nye County staff have been contacting people owning property or leases in or near the proposed rail line to survey their attitudes toward the rail line.
In this regard, in Nye County alone there were 136 landowners or owners of leases or rights-of-way identified in the rail corridor. Within the corridor, Nye County has identified 866 un-patented mines, 174 patented mines, 91 patented lands, 18 rights of way, 9 ranchers with 35 water or land improvements, and one oil and gas lease.
During the current study, established businesses will be contacted to determine if the rail line will impact them and to quantify the nature of the impact. Some business interests have already identified an adverse impact while others anticipate benefits related to being able to ship commodities more efficiently. New business opportunities will also be examined.
Currently, the DOE does not intend the rail line to be used commercially. However, if the Nye County study shows the local economy will benefit in a significant way, the decision regarding multiple, or shared, use will be reconsidered.
It is anticipated the study will be completed in February 2005. For additional information about this study, contact David Swanson at the Department of Natural Resources and Federal Facilities.
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Las Vegas SUN
November 26, 2004
Letter: Let sound science dictate longer Yucca standard
Now is the time for the Bush administration to use sound science in judging whether Yucca Mountain should be opened as a nuclear waste repository. The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act was written to protect the environment. In the years 1998-1999 this was violated when it was determined by Congress, not scientists, that man-made, engineered barriers would be allowable in protecting the environment. Prior to that decision, nuclear waste burial was permissible only if geologic barriers, such as those provided by Yucca Mountain, would be sufficient to protect against the waste.
Now is not the time to change the rules again. The Bush administration must not allow Congress to throw out the provision that requires Yucca Mountain's radiation standard to be in line with findings by the National Academy of Science. The Academy said Yucca Mountain would need to protect against radiation for several hundred thousand years. The mountain is being built, however, to be protective for only 10,000 years. A federal appeals court confirmed this fact, which could be a showstopper. Building anything that could be protective for several hundred thousand years is likely impossible.
If Congress does change the provision, and passes a bill allowing a 10,000-year radiation standard, President Bush should veto it. He has, after all, promised to base his decisions on sound science, and not political expediency.
Frank Perna
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Salt Lake Tribune
November 26, 2004
Desert is Hill's ace in the hole
Base closure process: The training range strengthens the Utah facility's hand, yet it won't guarantee survival
By Christopher Smith
ARLINGTON, Va. - The Pentagon owns more than 1,100 pieces of real estate in Utah, from a rusting viewing platform for Cold War-era missile launches near Green River to gargantuan repair hangars at Hill Air Force Base, where some of the military's most sophisticated weapons systems are fine-tuned.
But in the eyes of the Department of Defense official directing the analysis for the 2005 round of base closures, the most valuable piece of military property in the state may be a blank, withered void bigger than Delaware: The Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR) west of Salt Lake City.
"Training areas are huge expanses of land with no buildings," said Ray DuBois, deputy undersecretary of Defense for installations and environment. "I like that."
Inside a windowless room at the Pentagon sealed and locked behind anyone allowed to enter, DuBois oversees a team evaluating the 600,000 structures and properties owned by the Department of Defense. This spring, after weighing 25 million factors in the inventory, he will forward to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld findings on what may exceed the military's future needs. By May 16, Rumsfeld will give Congress his list of recommended U.S. base closings and changes in military installation missions.
Known as the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, "there are few issues as politically charged," DuBois said. So, he refuses to take phone calls from lobbyists, avoids discussing specifics with lawmakers and declines reporters' requests to see the list of 789 initial questions his staff sent to every base commander in the country.
DuBois declares that everything in the military's real-estate portfolio is being scrutinized for cost-cutting closure - with one exception.
Wide-open bombing ranges are sacrosanct.
"The most precious categories we cannot close are those we cannot reconstitute nationally," DuBois said. "We are very sensitive to the training asset. We cannot go out and buy new properties."
The U.S. military has 353 training range complexes covering 26million acres worldwide, according to the research arm of Congress. But the combination of the Air Force's 2,600-square mile UTTR and the Army's neighboring Dugway Proving Ground - itself bigger than Rhode Island - give Utah claim to the largest overland range in the lower 48 states.
Bisected only by Interstate 80 across the Great Salt Lake Desert, the range also offers the largest swath of authorized Mach-speed military airspace in the continental United States. It is arrayed with hundreds of simulated targets, all monitored electronically from UTTR Mission Control at nearby Hill Air Force Base between Ogden and Layton.
Hill's role administering UTTR operations helped the state's largest employer - with 23,000 civilian workers and approximately the same number of contract employees - escape closure during the 1993 and 1995 BRAC rounds.
But the proximity of the UTTR to Hill is no guarantee of survival in BRAC 2005. For example, DuBois points to Naval Air Station Cecil Field, the South's largest master jet base and the largest military installation in the Jacksonville, Fla. area. The 30,000-acre base was closed in September 1999 after it was placed on the 1995 BRAC list. But the Pentagon kept open the restricted airspace above the padlocked installation.
"That was the most valuable part of Cecil Field," said DuBois, "not the concrete on the ground."
Utah lawmakers have worked to maintain UTTR's billing as the largest special-use airspace in the country. In the latest Defense authorization bill, Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett ordered the Air Force to report to Congress next year if any "current and anticipated encroachments" could threaten the range's airspace.
The expected target of that study is the proposed high-level nuclear waste storage site on the Skull Valley Indian Reservation of the Goshute Tribe adjacent to the range. State and federal lawmakers fear the Air Force may be forced to reduce UTTR airspace to avoid the catastrophic risk of a jet fighter crashing into the casks of spent fuel stored above ground.
PrivateFuel Storage, the consortium that has sought since 1997 to get the Skull Valley waste site licensed, has calculated the chances of an F-16 fighter accidentally hitting radioactive canisters as less than 4 in 10 million per year. The Atomic Safety Licensing Board disagreed with that analysis, siding with a state argument that the likelihood was higher.
First District Rep. Rob Bishop's bipartisan bill to prevent range encroachment by creating a wilderness area on Bureau of Land Management property next to the test range - allowing overflights but blocking rail shipments of waste to the Goshute dump - cleared the House this year.
But it was killed in the Senate by Nevada lawmakers who are still angry over members of the Utah congressional delegation voting in 2002 in favor of building a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain near Las Vegas. Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson was the only Utahn voting against the plan.
"This was Harry Reid's revenge," said Bishop, referring to the senior Nevada senator who will take the reins of Senate Democrats inthe new Congress. "Reid's staff made a deal with us that if we did not attach our bill to one of his, he wouldn't object to it. And it's true he didn't object to it - he had [Nevada Sen. John] Ensign go over and object to it."
Bishop said he will reintroduce the UTTR legislation in the next Congress in the hope that "the dynamics may change" between the Utah and Nevada delegations.
"The irony is, I'm with them on Yucca Mountain," said Bishop, who just won election to a second term. "Had I been here, I would have voted against Yucca Mountain."
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Des Moines Register
November 26, 2004
Nuclear waste crossing Iowa rises
'We hope we have enough safety processes in place,' says a state health department spokesman.
By Frank Santiago
Nuclear waste shipments by truck and train across Iowa have increased sharply, new figures show.
The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 490 shipments of radioactive material through the state in the budget year that ended June 30.
The material was destined for government repositories in Western states. The shipments represented a 21 percent jump from the 406 shipments during the previous 12-month period.
Officials say the radioactive material moved safely across Iowa, which is a major east-west corridor for the traffic, with escorts from the Iowa Department of Public Transportation. There was minimal risk, they said, and there were no accidents.
"We hope we have enough safety processes in place," said Kevin Teale, health department spokesman. "The rail and truck companies are well aware of what they're doing, and they go that extra mile for safety."
Critics say the continuous movement of radioactive material is dangerous, with no sign of a slowdown.
"I didn't realize we were already into these kinds of numbers for high-level shipments," said Jane Magers of Earth Care Inc., a Des Moines environmental group.
"We're not talking about sandboxes here. We're talking about toxic materials. For someone to say all these shipments are safe is ludicrous."
Of the 490 shipments in the latest year, eight contained high-level radioactive waste transported by truck from nuclear power plants. No high-level wastes crossed Iowa the previous year.
The numbers are the latest and most complete, according to the health department. Shipments were halted and began a slow recovery after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Kevin Kamps, spokesman for the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a watchdog group in Washington, D.C., predicted shipments are likely to increase as storage space at nuclear plant sites runs out.
"High-level waste is almost entirely stored at where it has been generated, the reactor sites. And 75 percent of those sites are east of the Mississippi River," he said. "The big holdup is the lack of a national repository."
That repository is the proposed storage area at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. It has been stalled by public opposition and lawsuits.
Kamps said that the Department of Energy "has targeted Iowa as one of the main east-west corridors" to the Yucca Mountain repository.
"There have been 2,500 to 3,000 shipments of high-level wastes in the whole history of the United States," he said. "In one year of the Yucca Mountain program, there would be that many shipments. A lot of them would be through Iowa," he said.
David Miller, administrator of the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division, said the increased traffic of nuclear waste in Iowa has been significant.
Teale said the low-level waste included items such as clothing exposed to radiation at medical facilities and materials used to clean up contaminated areas. All the wastes in the shipments have been in solid form. There have been no liquids, he said.
Tom Sever, the state transportation department's hazardous materials coordinator, said there has been only one incident. A truck carrying nuclear waste slipped off an icy stretch of highway near the Quad Cities last year. He said the truck was slightly damaged, but continued to its destination with its cargo untouched.
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TidePool
November 26, 2004
Go West, Democrats
Harry Reid, a Westerner from Nevada, is poised to lead the Democrats as minority leader
By John Christensen
Can a teetotaling Mormon from a busted mining town in Nevada lead Democrats to the Promised Land of national power? This much is certain: Democrats rallied behind Harry Reid in the hope that he can take them through purgatory --or is it hell? -- as minority leader of the 44-member Democratic caucus in the U.S. Senate.
Many doubted at first that a man with his mild demeanor had the right stuff to represent underdog Democrats at their nadir. I think Reid has what it takes.
First, he is an insider, known as one of the best players in the inside baseball game of the Senate, where deals are made in the cloakroom and not on the floor. This means Reid will help shape the issues that shape the future of Democrats.
Second, Reid's highest personal ambition is winning back the Senate for the Democrats and then becoming majority leader. This means he will cultivate and advance new leaders for the party.
Finally -- and as important as the others but little noticed in the national puzzlement over how Reid got where he is -- he understands the West. Nov.2 indicates that the key to the Democratic Party's future nationally is in the West. The signs are hopeful. Western Democrats did surprisingly well, even though the states went for Bush.
How did Reid end up in charge of a party most see as coastal and liberal? His hard-luck biography says a lot. His father, a prospector and miner in Searchlight, Nev., committed suicide when Reid was a young man. To get a better education, Reid hitchhiked 40 miles each week to go to high school in Henderson, near Las Vegas.
After college, he worked his way through law school as a Capitol Hill cop in Washington, D.C. Back in Nevada, he became head of the state gaming commission and took on the mob in the casino industry. Reid is not a big man, but he was a boxer in high school, a scrapper who puts up a good fight.
Reid grew up in a backwater of the old West but came of age politically in a new West. The region was transformed after World War II by military spending, the interstate highway system, the rise of tourism and the growth of its metropolitan cities. Those forces came together to make this the fastest-growing region in the country.
Las Vegas, where Reid focused his political career, has been caught up in this maelstrom of change. But Reid has also had to represent the rest of Nevada as well, the mining towns, ranches and farms and Indian reservations. He has learned to make important compromises on mining, water, grazing, wilderness, and with Native American tribes. What is most interesting about his compromises is that they are not haphazard. They flow out of his vision of the future.
Reid in his speeches and in personal interactions tells one story over and over. In it, he is taking his wife to see a spring hidden among the Joshua trees in the desert west of Searchlight, where he went as a boy to escape his life. They find the spring, but it has been trashed. Reid is heartbroken: It is a beautiful thing from his past that he wanted to share with his wife in the present. This is one of the few personal stories you will hear from this reticent man. The other involves the suicide of his father, which he only recently began to talk about.
What do the stories signify? They tell him and his listeners that the old ways have got to change. Those stories drive him to find a way out of the dead-end dilemma of the old West, which sees compromise as unmanly.
What might Reid's leadership of the Senate minority mean for the West? He will do everything possible to stop the proposed nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas. And if the Senate minority leader can do one thing, it is to clog up the system and delay action. Unlike the House of Representatives, the majority in the Senate cannot ride roughshod over the minority.
More important for the nation, Reid will also be able to shape the legislative agenda behind the scenes. If he can shape the Democratic agenda, he might succeed in moving the party toward the center and toward the West. Reid could be the instrument by which the West replaces the South as a key part of a Democratic coalition, which once again makes that party a contender.
Jon Christensen is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News (hcn.org). He spent 12 years as journalist in Nevada and is currently on a graduate fellowship in history at Stanford University in California.
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Platts
November 22, 2004
Two NRC recess appointments expected in January
Washington (Platts)
Two long-vacant NRC seats will be filled in January through recess appointments under a deal reached yesterday between the White House, Senate Democratic Leader-elect Harry Reid (Nev.), and Senate Republicans. The appointments will allow Reid's science policy advisor Gregory Jaczko and retired Navy Vice Adm. Albert Konetzni Jr. to serve through 2006. In an apparent concession to the industry's vehement objections to Jaczko, the 34-year-old congressional staffer will not be renominated for a full term, and he must recuse himself from any votes on matters related to the proposed Yucca Mountain, Nev. repository during his first year. Nils Diaz will serve as chairman until June, according to Energy & Natural Resources Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.). He said the agreement lifted the block on scores of presidential nominees and allowed the Senate to confirm about 175 appointments to federal positions.
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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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