Yucca Mountain News Clips - Friday, April 4, 2008

Yucca Mountain News Clips
Friday, April 4, 2008
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Senator Harry Reid
April 03, 2008

Energy Department Sets Aside Pulic Interest To Deliver $100 Million Sweetheart Deal To Nuclear Industry Law Firm

Nevada Congressional Delegation calls on Energy Department to recuse conflicted firm

Washington, D.C. – A scathing report released today by the Department of Energy's (DOE) own Inspector General shows that the Energy Department did not act in the public's best interest when it knowingly hired a law firm with clear conflicts of interest to represent the Yucca Mountain Project. The DOE awarded a $100 million no-bid contract to Morgan Lewis & Bockius to assist in drafting a license application for the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain despite the fact it also represents major utilities in lawsuits against the DOE.

After being briefed by the Inspector General, Nevada's entire congressional delegation called on the Energy Department to recuse the law firm, particularly after learning that one firm seeking to do business with the DOE was deemed to have no conflict at all.

In its report the Inspector General expressed concern that the DOE lowered its own internal standards to allow the Department to award the contract to Morgan Lewis & Bockius. The report cites a similar situation in 1999 when the DOE declined to award a contract to a law firm it deemed was conflicted because it didn't want to raise questions about the integrity of the process. However, in 2007 the Energy Department lowered the bar in order to hire the chosen law firm of the nuclear industry. The Inspector General also expressed concern that the DOE failed to document how it justified loosening its own standards.

"Once again, it's painfully clear that the Energy Department continues to set aside public interest and security in its rush to turn Nevada into the nation's nuclear dumping ground," said Nevada Senator Harry Reid. "It is unacceptable that the Department is willing to set aside any and all integrity in a rush to implement its dangerous plan of shipping 77,000 tons of nuclear waste across the country to Nevada. The Department could have saved countless taxpayer dollars that went into this investigation if it had only done the right thing."

"This report demonstrates the lengths that the Department of Energy is willing to go to push forward a failed policy at Yucca Mountain," said Ensign. "Lowering the bar to hire the chosen law firm of the nuclear industry sets a dangerous precedent. It is unfortunate that the people of Nevada remain far from the minds of Department of Energy officials, and this report confirms that."

"This report makes clear that DOE blatantly violated its own policies in order to award a $100 million sweetheart deal to a firm drowning in special interest conflicts from lucrative deals with the nuclear industry. When DOE learned that its own policies prevented the awarding of this no bid contract to Morgan Lewis, they just torched the rulebook. Either DOE should drop Morgan Lewis or the firm should take its own name out of the running based on these findings from the Energy Department's own internal investigators," said Rep. Berkley. "Once again, Nevadans are witnessing the extraordinary lengths that the Bush White House will go to in order to bury Nevada in toxic nuclear waste. What's another $100 million dollars when the Bush Yucca Mountain plan already tops $80 billion?"

"The Department of Energy's internal investigation has made it crystal clear that there was a choice of whether to award a $100 million contract to a firm who had a conflict of interest or a firm who did not," said Porter. "DOE set aside the public's best interest and chose Morgan Lewis whose loyalties lie with the nuclear industry and not with the American taxpayer. Impartiality and objectivity are cornerstones in maintaining public confidence. Those are commitments that DOE has held in contempt. It is beyond debate that immediate recusal of Morgan Lewis' services is critical."

"This report highlights the blatant disregard for the public good. The Energy Departments' misuse of taxpayer money to hire Morgan Lewis underscores the lengths DOE will go to push this flawed project. DOE has made one mistake after another over the course of the Yucca Mountain project," said Heller.

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Las Vegas SUN
April 03, 2008

Nevada delegation assails law firm’s work on Yucca Mountain

By Lisa Mascaro

WASHINGTON — Nevada’s lawmakers in Washington are unanimously calling for the Energy department to sever its ties with a law firm retained to help license the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project following what they called a “scathing” internal review of the $100 million contract.

The Energy department’s Inspector General, in a report today, found it “disturbing” that department officials did not better document their decision to reverse past practices and hire a firm with a known conflict of interest.

The law firm, Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, represents nuclear utility companies that are suing the government over delays in opening Yucca Mountain as the nation’s nuclear waste repository. The department faces $7 billion in legal liability from the suits.

The department has previously said the conflict could be waived by walling off employees who are working on the lawsuits from those working on Yucca Mountain. The contract was awarded in November and the Nevada delegation immediately called for the investigation.

Today’s report said that the department could have hired a firm without a conflict. It added that during past hiring decisions, the department had determined hiring firms with similar conflicts and mitigation plans would be unacceptable.

The Inspector General cited a 1999 Energy department memo that said the department “cannot afford a public perception that its licensing decisions regarding the repository were influenced by a firm that owes loyalties to the nuclear utilities.”

The report concluded the department did not adequately explain the role reversal. “Given the controversial nature of the Yucca Mountain Project; the history of allegations concerning conflicts of interest; and, the likely public scrutiny of any Yucca Mountain Project legal services contract, we found the absence of such documentation disturbing,” the report said.

The nuclear waste repository is being planned for Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid led the delegation in calling for the department to recuse the firm. “It is unacceptable that the Department is willing to set aside any and all integrity in a rush to implement its dangerous plan of shipping 77,000 tons of nuclear waste across the country to Nevada,” Reid said in a statement with the other lawmakers.

However, Energy spokeswoman Megan Barnett said the report concludes the department followed all legal and organizational regulations governing conflicts.

“Contrary to the assertions of the Nevada Congressional delegation, nothing here warrants the recusal,” Barnett said in a statement.

“Our focus has been on obtaining the best legal services for the Department, consistent with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.”

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AP Google
April 03, 2008

DOE Faulted on Yucca Law Firm Selection

By Erica Werner

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Energy Department did not fully document its rationale for awarding a $100 million contract to a law firm with a conflict of interest for work on a national nuclear waste dump in Nevada, the agency's inspector general said Thursday.

"We found the absence of such documentation disturbing," said the investigator's report.

However, the department's selection of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP to help prepare a license application for the Yucca Mountain repository appeared to follow conflict-of-interest requirements established by federal regulations and the District of Columbia bar, the investigator found.

Morgan Lewis represents nuclear utilities suing the government over contracts to store spent reactor fuel. The government is facing billions in liability for failing to make good on those contracts because of long delays in opening Yucca Mountain.

Department managers granted a waiver from conflict of interest requirements after deciding they needed a firm with licensing experience before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They concluded that any firm with such experience would have similar conflicts.

However, the inspector general said that another law firm that met with the Energy Department had no such conflicts. "This was confusing," the report said.

Also, in the past the Energy Department has excluded firms with similar conflicts, said the report. The contract awarded last fall was for five years with a five-year option.

The Energy Department and Morgan Lewis issued statements saying they were pleased the inspector general had found they conformed with conflict-of-interest rules.

A top Senate Democrat criticized the handling of the contract.

"The Energy Department continues to set aside public interest and security in its rush to turn Nevada into the nation's nuclear dumping ground," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

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PolitickerNV
April 03, 2008

Wally’s List: Top 10 Pork Barrel Projects for Nevada

By Wally Edge

PolitickerNV.com’s Joseph Cooper just did a great story on the amount of ‘pork-barrel’ spending that our congressional delegation brings home. I’ve put together a list of things that Wally would like to see Washington fund. Feel free to add your ideas, or disagree with mine.

10. Have the feds pay for the rest of our highway upgrades at the RTC, and get them done really fast. That would put a lot of hurting Nevada construction workers and companies back in business, and would soften our traffic headaches.

9. You know that pipe dream of a Mag-Lev train from here to L.A.? How about we skip that and just use the same 200 mph rail technology that they’ve had in Europe for decades. It’s proven, uses less energy, and for the same cost we could run the train line halfway down Baja.

8. Speaking of trains, build enough monorail so that it actually goes somewhere. Let’s try the airport and downtown first. If you really want it to make money, put in an express line to Pahrump and watch the brothel business triple as a side benefit to the economy.

7. Free buffet at the Wynn once a month for locals.

6. Open Yucca Mountain now, with a $1 per pound fee for nuke waste storage. Send me half and I won’t have to write this column anymore. It's sort of pork. Sort of.

5. Build desalinization plants for California in exchange for more water for us from Lake Mead. It’s only a matter of time on this one.

4. Build a 200 foot tall statue of Harry Reid in Searchlight. What else is there to see in Searchlight? Not much.

3. Invest enough in the SNWA turf-buyback program to eliminate natural grass in all back yards in the Las Vegas valley.

2. Subsidize mandatory installation of photovoltaic cells on all south-facing rooftops for new construction in Clark County. You have to do something if you’re going to keep blocking the construction of those new coal plants in Nevada, Senator.

1. Invest enough in solar and wind technology with CCSD that you have all new schools energy neutral, and kids who actually know something about renewable technology. Then go back and retrofit the old ones so that they are energy neutral as well.

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Reno News & Review
April 03, 2008

Book Review:

All hell breaks loose

Yucca Mountain Dirty Bomb

Wendell A. Duffield
iUniverse, Inc.

By Cheron Taylor

Yucca Mountain Dirty Bomb, a novel by Wendell A. Duffield, posits a literary worst-case scenario about a potential nuclear waste dumpsite in Nevada. The year is 2027, and stewards of the not-too-distant future environment have gone ahead and done it. The bowels of Yucca Mountain are stuffed tight with canisters storing the nation’s nuclear waste.

Water seepage into the underground caverns give a sloppy wet kiss to the gases and magma within the volcano below. The result is an angry explosion of Vulcan energy that carries radioactive dust that eventually rests across the surface of Lake Mead and the city of Las Vegas.

The novel blends elements of the current political maelstrom surrounding the Yucca situation with the horror of a slim chance of disaster realized. Ominous shades of John Hersey’s Hiroshima are played out through first-person accounts of the moment of catastrophe.

In a chapter aptly titled, “Testes Tingle,” Duffield tells the brief, unsavory story of drainage ditch dweller Billie Parker. Recuperating from a wicked night of swilling $50 worth of cheap liquor, the homeless Billie sleeps through a panicked exodus of the entire population of Las Vegas. When he rises to greet the day, he finds the city abandoned and expresses his befuddled joy by stripping and wading, bare-assed, in inches of radioactive volcanic ash covering the streets. The reader immediately gets the humorously somber picture of Billie’s future—there is no danger of causing any accidental pregnancies. Though the road ahead is grim for Billie, his present is one full of the glee and small joys of the perpetually drunk and blissfully unaware.

Barney Shanks and Hank Thomas are the consulting geologists at the helm of the Yucca project. Barney specializes in volcanic study; Hank is his anal-retentive, odd-couple partner whose field of expertise is seismology. Together, the two narrowly escape fiery deaths, learn what love truly means, and sit in on a feisty joint congressional hearing about who is to blame for the so-called dirty bomb detonated by nature at Yucca Mountain.

Duffield’s novel examines, in meticulous detail, the process of raising reasonable doubt about a potential natural disaster that stands in the way of progress, and the folly of holding hands with such reasoning. The implications are unavoidably political. Devil’s advocacy forms the foundation of the story, as thoroughly likeable but obvious bad guy Vincent Gordon, leader of the panel that will eventually green light the Yucca Project, eloquently states his case for the private glory of personal profit.

Yucca Mountain author Duffield, a university professor of geology at the Northern Arizona University and self-proclaimed “pink-cheeked sexagenarian,” writes with the emboldened voice of a man made taller and more plucky than usual by his position atop a soapbox. Although he holds three degrees, including a Ph.D., he bars no holds when taking shots at the academic community for misusing knowledge for political and personal gain.

The novel has some wrinkles but is thoughtful and entertaining in spite of its faults. A shallow satisfaction comes to mind during the reading of it, like the sort that erupts when one is watching a made-for-television movie based on a true story. It will imbue most thinking readers with a sense of awe and alarm at what the year 2027 prospectively could bring should Yucca ever wind up wearing the sullied red dress of nuclear offal.

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Pahrump Valley Times
April 02, 2008

State estimates record challenges to Yucca

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Nevada could launch between 250-500 license challenges to Yucca Mountain, state officials said, making the proposed radioactive waste repository by far the most contentious issue ever weighed by nuclear safety regulators.

Attorneys for the state presented the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with the ballpark estimate this week as the federal agency prepares to launch its review of a construction application the Department of Energy says it will file in June.

Other participants in the licensing hearings, such as Clark County and Nye County, reported they each may introduce between 11 and 25 "contentions" to be debated before administrative judges during the licensing process.

All told, "We could be looking at about 650-plus proposed contentions from 11 parties," NRC spokesman David McIntyre said in an email, adding that would be the most ever filed in a licensing case since the agency revised its rules in 1989.

It is likely that some will be combined or weeded out.

Among other high-profile cases, McIntyre said 138 contentions were submitted when the NRC considered the private fuel storage application to temporarily store nuclear waste on the Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah, although only 25 were admitted into the hearing.

About 100 contentions were filed in an ongoing license renewal case for the Indian Point nuclear power station in New York, he said.

Nevada officials said they are preparing technical challenges to DOE's science research and engineering designs for the Yucca site.

Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, said the state also plans to object to DOE's fitness as an operator.

He said the state will point out DOE has struggled with quality assurance over the years and for a time did not adequately control harmful dusts that were ingested by tunnel workers.

The planned challenges reflect the scope of the first-ever attempt to license underground high-level nuclear waste storage.

DOE will try to persuade safety regulators that specially designed waste canisters and the warren of tunnels it wants to build a thousand feet below the surface and a thousand feet above the water table will prevent decaying nuclear particles from leaking into groundwater and seeping into the neighboring valley.

It also shows the intent of Nevada leaders to pull out the stops to kill an unpopular project that was forced on the state.

"Nevada has suggested for some time that it would be filing a lot of contentions," said Michael Bauser, deputy general counsel of the Nuclear Energy Institute. "This is a first-of-its-kind proceeding and we expected it to be hotly contested.I would imagine it would be as much of a challenge as any proceeding the NRC has undertaken so far."

If the NRC agrees to docket the application after an initial three-month examination, the agency would perform internal safety studies and convene public hearings where controversies surrounding the decades-long project are expected to be aired in a courtroom-style atmosphere.

The NRC by federal law must render a decision within three years, with an option to add a fourth year. Many experts believe the undertaking will test the agency, which has assigned 120 engineers and scientists to review an application that DOE officials say will be 8,000 pages long and backed by 200 supporting references totalling another 50,000 pages.

Loux earlier had been reported as saying Nevada could present as many as 2,000 contentions, a number so high it caused industry and government officials to bolt up and take notice.

Loux said he put the number out there "to keep the DOE and the NRC a little off-balance."

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
April 01, 2008

Erin Neff: April fools

For a moment I thought about penning a fictionalized column befitting of today's trickery. Sadly, Nevada news is filled with enough foolhardiness to make the truth seem stranger than any fiction.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain finally found Nevada last week after largely ignoring the Silver State during primary season. Friday's question-and-answer session at The Venetian (with Republicans, it's always The Venetian) ended with far more questions than answers.

Although it is early in the election year, McCain showed he is running the Bush-Rove playbook for Nevada: Show up, raise money and say nothing, understanding that voters don't really give a hoot about the Yucca Mountain Project.

Time will tell if the strategy is truly foolish. After all, Bush never crusaded against the gaming industry or ignored our biggest crisis. In 2004, he was just cruising on a good economy and appeasing the evangelicals. McCain probably won't be able to do either.

There's a bit more tomfoolery than foolishness when it comes to the other Republican biggie who spent part of last weekend in Las Vegas. Robert Duncan, chairman of the Republican National Committee, was out in Nevada's 3rd Congressional District on Saturday stumping for Rep. Jon Porter. He also was the keynote speaker at the Clark County Lincoln Day Dinner.

As long as long as Republicans continue to see the attention from Washington, they'll know they're in a red state expected to stay red.

Nevada, however, is turning decidedly Democratic -- in statewide registration, in CD3 registration and with Democrats holding four of six statewide offices.

Meanwhile, the state's duly-elected GOP governor needs to consult the Motley Fool for a little economic advice.

Whatever happened to a crisis creating strength, poise or grace under pressure? Gov. Jim Gibbons, faced with several crises, is not even able to handle the one in his own home, let alone the state's most urgent issues.

On Monday, he confirmed the long-suspected, across-the-board budget cuts to some agencies. This process suggests, as I have previously commented, that a child's life carries the same importance as nonessential equipment supplies.

The Department of Health and Human Services was given the directive last week to cut an additional 1.5 percent of its budget. The cuts amount to $109 million in areas that are among the state's most stressed, understaffed and underperforming. This is the department, in case you're wondering, that oversees licensing of the scoping mills that have unethically, immorally and illegally exposed people to life-threatening diseases.

Why would Gibbons cut even more from Health and Human Services, and even now?

Of course, in Gibbons' curious way of looking at the problem, the overall impact to the department's budget is 6.1 percent, the same impact other departments are facing to offset the state's economic woes. Never mind that many of the cuts are to areas that could actually save the state money long-term. It's easier to pay a little money up front for, say, inspectors or case workers or program nurses, than it is to manage a chronic illness or a community catastrophe.

Speaking of catastrophes, I should have known that I'd be left wearing the dunce cap for saying something nice about the governor. In my March 18 column, I congratulated Gibbons for finally showing some, dare I say, leadership. He had called for the resignation of three doctors from the Board of Medical Examiners. The doctors had ties to disgraced "health center" owner Dipak Desai (I can't bring myself to call him a doctor anymore).

Gibbons had asked them to step down so he could remove the taint of perceived conflicts. When tens of thousands of people have been told to get tested for hepatitis and HIV, Gibbons showed he actually was leading by trying to clean the state's house.

Then the fool gene took over. He started complaining about media coverage of the scandal because "only six" people had contracted hepatitis C. When the doctors challenged the governor and refused to step down, Gibbons didn't act like the governor and go to bat for his beliefs -- he turned to Jell-O.

It made me wonder for a moment what Mike O'Callaghan might have done had someone challenged him like that when he was governor. If a real man were in the mansion, Drs. Javaid Anwar, Daniel McBride and Sohail Anjum just might not have the privilege to practice medicine anymore.

Here's just how spineless Gibbons has become. Not only did he buckle on the three doctors, he caved on asking for board Executive Director Tony Clark to resign, even as he said he thought Clark should still resign.

Imagine if Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she thought elections in Zimbabwe were tainted, but the process should be upheld. Instead, she called the country's president a "disgrace" to his people and to a whole continent.

Here, when the fool on Mountain Street speaks, people don't just ignore him. They do exactly the opposite of what he says.

--Contact Erin Neff at eneff@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2906.

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Indian Country Today
March 31, 2008

Longest Walk II participants warmly welcomed in Flagstaff

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - On March 21, indigenous spiritual leaders, environmental groups, tribal officials and community members welcomed more than 100 participants of the Longest Walk II.

The Longest Walk II is a five-month journey that began in San Francisco and will finish in Washington, D.C., bringing attention to environmental protection and Native rights. It marks the 30th anniversary of the original Longest Walk of 1978, which resulted in historic changes for American Indians.

''We've crossed 18 mountain ranges. We have walked 980 miles to be here,'' said Dennis Banks, co-founder of the American Indian Movement and lead coordinator for the southern route of the Longest Walk II. ''Thirty years ago, a walk took place across this country and one of the issues that we brought before members of Congress was the issue of the San Francisco Peaks, the holy mountain. Thirty years later, we are still concerned about the destruction and the violation of the holiness of this mountain.''

A sunrise prayer gathering was held on Arizona's San Francisco Peaks, where Snowbowl, a small private ski resort, has been attempting to expand and make snow from treated sewage effluent. More than 13 indigenous nations hold the peaks holy and are unified in resisting the desecration of this sacred site.

Following the ceremony, the walkers proceeded down the mountain, picking up trash on their way to Flagstaff City Hall for a news conference and rally. Representatives of the Save the Peaks Coalition, Sierra Club, ECHOES, Black Mesa Water Coalition and C-Aquifer for Dine' addressed the issues facing their communities and voiced their support for the Longest Walk II.

Shelby Ray, a 16-year-old representative of Youth of the Peaks, expressed her gratitude and encouragement to the young walkers, saying, ''We need more youth to speak out and take action for the environment and our rights.''

''The Longest Walk II is a spiritual walk for the protection of our Mother Earth,'' said Jeneda Benally, a volunteer with the Save the Peaks Coalition. ''We are honored and blessed to welcome and host everyone who is on this historic journey. From the holy San Francisco Peaks to Black Mesa, Yucca Mountain, Bear Butte, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Shell Mounds and many, many more, the Longest Walk is here because we are still struggling to protect our cultures and land.''

''This movement is a healing of our communities,'' said Kelvin Long, director of ECHOES, a Flagstaff-based indigenous rights organization.

''The continued desecration of sacred sites in America should be an affront to all people of conscience everywhere,'' stated attorney and congressional candidate Howard Shanker. ''Native Americans have no First Amendment Rights regarding public land use.'' Shanker has successfully represented tribes and environmental groups in the precedent setting case to protect the holy Peaks.

Phil Stego Jr., executive director of land management for the White Mountain Apache Tribe, stated, ''For those of you that believe Indian wars are over, they are not. They are just beginning again. We will fight to the end for our people's existence.''

''We have Navajo tribal officials who stand up to protect the sacred mountain but don't realize that water is also sacred. We say that water is life,'' said Calvin Johnson, president of C-Aquifer for Dine', an organization formed to oppose Peabody Coal's use of the C-Aquifer for coal transport from Black Mesa. C-Aquifer for Dine' also opposes the ''Settlement Plan'' that would reopen the Mohave Generating Station and Peabody Coal mining operations. Johnson led the crowd in chanting, ''Protect sacred sites, defend human rights.''

''Right now, 80 percent of the natural resources held underneath indigenous peoples' lands are being threatened. There is an ongoing war being waged for these resources,'' said Enei Begaye, director of the Black Mesa Water Coalition. ''We agree that we need to stop the war in Iraq and end the occupation of other territories around the world. However, it is important to remember that the U.S. is also occupying sovereign nations here in this country. On behalf of Black Mesa Water Coalition, we'd like to honor the walkers for carrying this message.''

The Longest Walk II is anticipated to arrive in the nation's capital July 11. ''Upon our arrival, we will deliver a resolution to elected officials. This resolution will document the struggles and concerns from each indigenous community that we encounter during our walk,'' Banks said. ''Our intention is to give a greater voice to the environmental and indigenous struggles that our government doesn't often acknowledge.''

During the 1978 Longest Walk, thousands converged on Washington, D.C., in an effort that defeated 11 pieces of legislation in Congress that would have abrogated Native treaties. As a result of the 1978 Walk, the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 was passed.

Since the arrival of the Longest Walk II to Flagstaff, many community members have volunteered to cook, provide housing, monetary donations and other supplies.

After their Flagstaff visit, Longest Walk II participants will continue though the Navajo Nation. For a complete itinerary, specific directions and additional information, visit www.longestwalk.org.

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Mineweb
March 31, 2008

Vane Minerals Drilling Program

Exploration near Grand Canyon prompts lawsuit, fed legislation to ban mining

Opposition to uranium exploration near Grand Canyon has generated a lawsuit, prompted a proposed federal mining ban on 1 million acres in Arizona, and again raised the call for U.S. mining law reform.

Dorothy Kosich

Reno, NV -

Uranium drilling exploration on the Tusayan Ranger District within two miles of the Grand Canyon National Park has prompted both federal legislation and a lawsuit seeking to ban exploration and mining on 1 million acres in Arizona.

Final plans of operation were signed this month, subject to 21 mitigation measures designed to minimize or eliminate potential impacts.

A hearing of the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Friday in Flagstaff, Arizona, drew more than 200 people Friday. Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-AZ) has introduced the Grand Canyon Watersheds Protection Act of 2008 (HR 5583) to withdraw 1 million acres near the Grand Canyon from mineral exploration. The bill would withdraw from mining 628,886 acres in the Kanab Creek area, 112,655 acres in House Rock Valley (both of which are managed by the Bureau of Land Management), as well as 327,367 acres in the Tusayan Ranger District of the Kaibab National Forest south of the Grand Canyon.

Meanwhile, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Grand Canyon Trust, and the Sierra has also filed a lawsuit against the District Ranger for the Tusayan Ranger District on the Kaibab National Forest and the U.S. Forest Service, challenging the agency's decision to authorize the exploratory drilling program of Vane Minerals.

The UK-based company is comprised of former members of the international exploration team for Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold.

In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim that their aesthetic, recreational, scientific, educational, religious and procedural interest "have been and will continue to be adversely affected and irreparably injured if the Forest Service allows the proposed exploratory drilling for uranium to proceed in the Tusayan Ranger District." The NGOs contend the Forest Service should have required an environmental impact statement or an environmental assessment for the Vale Minerals drilling project, thereby violating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The suit also accuses the Forest Service of refusing to allow, review and decide administrative appeal prior to authorizing the project.

In testimony before the House subcommittee Friday, Kristopher Hefton of Vane Minerals said, "The modern exploration and mining operations of the era from 1980 to present have had no significant negative impacts to the community nor to the environment in or near Grand Canyon National Park." He estimated that Vane Minerals has spent more than $1 million in the area.

"The economic benefits of the uranium activity [in northern Arizona] are already being felt and will be substantial," he warned. "To impose closures or suspensions of these activities will negatively impact people employed by the industry and the area's economy far more than the impact the operations will have on the Grand Canyon or the groups who claim to be effective. Considering our country's current energy concerns and the concerns with consuming fossil fuels, it would be short-sighted to impose actions that would stall the development of such an ideal resource and threaten us with more dependence on foreign energy sources."

"The present call for immediate and far-reaching changes by politicians and environmental groups is without merit. ...Vane does not believe that current or future activities constitute the actions requested by Governor Napolitano and Congressman Grijvala," he concluded.

Representative Grijalva insisted, however, that the exploration programs being conducted near the Grand Canyon National Park call for the reform of the 1872 Mining Law. "While the reform effort dallies, claims in our national forests and on public lands are skyrocketing. In particular, uranium claims around the Grand Canyon National Park are spiking. There were only 10 miles within five miles of the Park in 2003; as of July 2007, there were 1,130. In 2003, there were only 35 claims within 10 miles of the Park, but as of Jan. 2007, there were 2,840. These statistics should give us pause."

Mining opponents are also fearful of discussions between Kaibab National Forest officials and Denison Mines regarding re-opening the Canyon mine and future operations.

However, geologist Karen Wenrich told the House subcommittee that "uranium mining in the region around the Grand Canyon has clearly demonstrated that it can be done with no impact on the Grand Canyon watershed. Hence, there is no mining to protect the Grand Canyon watershed from, and the Grand Canyon Watersheds Protection Act of 2008 is frivolous legislation."

"Mining was done for 15 years followed by a 13-year hiatus of no mining. During this hiatus no water analyses from in and around the Grand Canyon have detected any contamination with elevated radionuclides concentrations," she asserted.

Nevertheless, Carl Taylor of the Coconino County Board of Supervisors told the subcommittee that his board "supports the permanent withdrawal of lands in Coconino County from uranium development on the Tusayan Ranger District and House Rock Valley. In addition to the permanent withdrawal, Coconino County supports providing federal land managers with the authority to assess cultural and economic impacts when making decisions under mining and reclamation laws."

Kane County Commissioner Daniel Hulet, however, asserted that "a strong and stable economy does not come from the places people can see, touch, or experience; a strong and stable economy is not based on tourism and recreation. It has been proven in our region, a tourism and recreation-based economy can and will collapse in an instant through acts of terrorism, a high dollar abroad, weather conditions, passage of restrictive laws, over-inflated fuel costs, and other activities that keep the travel public at home."

"Kane County strongly supports the multiple use mandates of both the Bureau of Land Management and the National Forest Service; we also support the current mining laws in effect at this time, and believe that access to those activities are just as important as the activities themselves," he added.

"I am aware that there currently exists in Coconino County 2,734 mining claims north and south of the Grand Canyon National Park, and 12,008 mining claims in Mohave County, north and south of Grand Canyon National Park. However, it is important to note that not one of these mining claims is located within the boundaries of the Grand Canyon National Park, or inside of a wilderness area, a wilderness study area of game preserve," according to Hulet.

"In fact, there are no reasons to shut down an industry which provides the region with much needed jobs and the country with a clean and economical energy source. This is indeed a unique situation where we can all benefit from the treasures that nature provides and still maintain a healthy, viable environment," he concluded.

Nevertheless, Charles Vaughn, Chairman of the Hualapai Tribe of northwestern Arizona, said his tribe does not "consider uranium as an energy alternative that we should explore to provide economic benefit to our tribe. ...We do not want to see the by-products of uranium production stored in places like Yucca Mountain for the remainder of our lifetimes and leave others with the concern of potential harm this would bring our progenitors Grandfather Water and Mother Earth."

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Tri-City Herald
March 31, 2008

Hanford workers digging up lost fuel pieces

By Annette Cary
Herald staff writer

Hanford workers have unearthed 32 whole and 11 partial pieces of highly radioactive reactor fuel in burial grounds for reactor debris along the Columbia River.

They are certain to find more, as digging is in progress or to begin at seven of the Hanford nuclear reservation's 11 major burial grounds for reactor debris.

"This shows why Ecology, and also the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy, wants the burial grounds dug up," said John Price, environmental restoration project manager for the Washington state Department of Ecology.

When pumps, tongs, the spacers used between fuel pieces inside reactors and other debris were buried during World War II and the Cold War, their disposal was assumed to be permanent.

But current environmental standards call for restoring the areas along the river to their condition before Hanford was used to produce plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program. Without cleanup, a person who unknowingly digs up the irradiated fuel pieces 1,000 years from now would be exposed to harmful levels of radiation, Price said.

The fuel pieces being recovered have radiation levels of one to greater than 100 rad per hour, which is approximately 200,000 times the exposure limit set by the Department of Energy, Price said. Because they are so radioactive and the radioactivity is so long-lived, they're required to be disposed of at a national repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev.

Other debris from the reactor burial grounds is being taken to a lined landfill for low-level radioactive waste in central Hanford.

How the fuel pieces ended up in the burial grounds is uncertain. But the 8-inch-long fuel pieces were similar to the dummy spacers used in the reactor, and the work to remove fuel from the reactor core and retrieve it could be difficult, Price said.

It appears the pieces simply got lost, despite procedures for counting fuel before and after it was irradiated.

After fuel was irradiated in tubes within the reactor block, it was pushed out of the rear face of the reactor into large basins of water to cool. Workers then would use long-handled tongs to separate the dummies and the fuel pieces under 20 feet of water needed as a radiation shield.

Because of pressure to produce large quantities of plutonium, power levels of the reactors were increased beyond the design capacity, causing the fuel elements to blister and break, according to DOE's History of the Plutonium Production Facilities at the Hanford Site Historic District, 1943-1990.

In addition, the graphite stack of the reactors expanded, making discharging the fuel from the graphite tube channels sometimes difficult.

When work began to dig up reactor debris burial grounds, there was no documentation or historical knowledge that they would contain irradiated fuel, said Chris Smith, DOE assistant manager for Hanford's river corridor.

The first fuel piece discovered was a surprise, but contractors on the river corridor have adapted to the hazard, he said.

Washington Closure Hanford spends a half day to a full day stirring unearthed material while it is still in burial trenches with an excavator operated by a worker wearing a supplied air respirator. At the end of the day, monitor air filters are checked for radiation.

If workers can confirm there is not airborne contamination, the debris is loaded into a dump truck and taken to a nearby sorting trench to be spread out in a layer six inches to 1 foot thick. Radiological monitors operated remotely are used to scan the debris.

"We approach everything as if it were hazardous and high dose," Miller said.

Workers use long-handled tools to try to identify and remove items with unusual radiation readings. If they are suspected to be irradiated fuel, they are placed in temporary bunkers made of concrete blocks. The corroded pieces are cleaned, measured and weighed to determine their identity.

"Everything buried in the '40s and '50s looks very similar," said Rex Miller, Washington Closure operations manager for field remediation. There are hundreds of similarly shaped pieces 8 to 11 inches long, he said.

Until now, pieces identified as fuel have been packed into reusable shielded shipping casks and driven with security escorts to the K West Basin. However, Tuesday is the last day fuel will be accepted at the K West Basin, where radioactive sludge is being held along with some irradiated scrap fuel.

As Fluor Hanford cleans up the K West Basin, additional found fuel will need to be packaged in single-use storage casks and sent to the central Hanford where it is planned to be stored on concrete pads until it can be shipped off site.

With that project to start up in the fall, Washington Closure has worked to get the fuel found to date delivered to the K West Basin.

The fuel has been moved to the K West Basin in nine shipments, Miller said. To avoid interfering with cleanup at the K Basins, most shipments were made on weekends.

"We think Washington Closure did a good job with the spent fuel shipping campaign," Price said. It's one more reason that the state wants to see full federal funding continue for cleanup work along the river corridor, he said.

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EnergyBiz Insider
March 31, 2008

Presidential Candidates Define Energy Policies

By Darrell Delamaide

Both parties admit the choice for president will be clear. The energy debate is no less cloudy.

On climate change, both Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton espouse a cap-and-trade emissions program with an auction of 100 percent of emission credits to force emitters to quantify their pollution levels. The objective in both senators' plans is to get emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican candidate, pledged a "market-based energy reform" that would rely far less on government subsidies. A speech by McCain on energy issues focuses largely on national security arising from dependence on foreign oil, particularly the vulnerability to a terrorist attack. As far as climate change goes, a utility or industrial plant could generate tradable credits if it cuts pollution thereby offering incentives to deploy new and better energy sources and technologies.

McCain cites many of the same solutions as his Democratic rivals - improved light bulbs, smart grid technology, energy savings - concluding that "government must set achievable goals, but the markets should be free to produce the means." Regardless of which Democratic hopeful ends up with the nomination, candidate McCain will differentiate his energy policy from theirs through the level of government intervention.

Obama's detailed plan, by contrast, ticks off numerous areas in which government will get involved. He plans, for starters, to invest $150 billion over 10 years in energy reform. Part of this money will go to transportation - the next generation of bio-fuels and fuel infrastructure and the commercialization of plug-in hybrids. But the focus is also on development of commercial-scale renewable energy, investments in low-emission coal plants, and transition to a new digital electricity grid. The fund will seek to make sure that technologies developed in the United States are rapidly commercialized and deployed both here and around the world.

To speed things along, the Obama plan calls for a clean technologies venture capital fund in which the government will invest $10 billion a year for five years. The fund will partner with existing investment funds and the national laboratories to ensure that promising technologies move beyond the lab.

The Democratic hopeful would also establish a federal renewable portfolio standard to require that 25 percent of electricity consumed in the United States be derived from clean, sustainable energy sources by the year 2025. At the same time, he would significantly increase the resources devoted to the commercialization and deployment of low-carbon coal technologies. If that would mean establishing standards that ban new traditional coal facilities, then he would consider that possibility.

The Plans

With regard to energy efficiency, new buildings should be carbon neutral, or produce zero emissions, by 2030, according to the Obama plan. As president, Obama said he would establish a national goal of improving new building efficiency by 50 percent and existing building efficiency by 25 percent over the next decade to help meet the 2030 goal. And he would create a competitive grant program to reward states and localities that implement new building codes prioritizing energy efficiency.

Clinton approaches the issue from an environmental standpoint, emphasizing green objectives, but her goals are remarkably similar to Obama's, right down to some of the details, such as the $150-billion investment over 10 years and the 25 percent renewable portfolio standard by 2025. A federal strategic energy fund of $50 billion would fund one-third of that 10-year investment.

Some of the other novelties in her plan include doubling of federal investment in basic energy research. That would involve implementing measures to spur the green building industry by investing in green collar jobs and helping to modernize and retrofit 20 million low-income homes to make them more energy efficient. It also would mean launching a new "Connie Mae" program to make it easier for low- and middle-income Americans to buy green homes and invest in green home improvements.

While Obama is strangely silent on the issue of nuclear energy, Clinton is not. She believes that energy efficiency and renewables are better options. As she sees it, there are significant unresolved issues about the cost of producing nuclear power, the safety of operating plants, waste disposal, and nuclear proliferation. So Clinton opposes new subsidies for nuclear power.

She would strengthen the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and direct it to improve safety and security at nuclear power plants. Furthermore, she would terminate work at the Yucca Mountain site while also convening a panel of scientific experts to explore alternatives for disposing of nuclear waste. But she would continue research, with a focus on lower costs and improving safety.

McCain is less shy about using nuclear energy. He says that the obstacles that have kept a new nuclear power plant from being constructed for more than 25 years are political, not technological. He asks, rhetorically, whether the United States is less innovative or secure than France, which produces 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power. He suggests providing for the safe storage of spent nuclear fuel by giving host states or localities a proprietary interest so when advanced recycling technologies turn used fuel into a valuable commodity, the public will share in its economic benefits.

In spite of his declaration for market-based solutions, McCain doesn't hesitate to suggest government intervention where necessary, noting that public-private partnerships may be necessary to build demonstration models of promising new technologies. That would include helping to move forward advanced nuclear power plants, coal gasification, carbon capture and storage and renewable power.

Like the other issues that divide the candidates, energy too appears to be driven in part along ideological grounds.

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National Ledger
March 31, 2008

Energy Bill: Why Not Nuclear Energy?

By Jon Kyl

At the end of 2007, Congress approved a comprehensive "energy bill" that was ostensibly dedicated to reducing the United States’ dependence on foreign oil and promoting reliable and affordable energy sources for the future. The problem is, the bill actually did nothing to produce a single watt of new energy.

I support the development of cost-effective alternatives to fossil fuels, but the alternatives shouldn’t increase the already burdensome costs of energy on American families. Unfortunately, alternatives proposed in the 2007 energy bill – like ethanol mandates – would increase these costs.

There is a source of clean and renewable energy already available – nuclear energy. Dr. Patrick Moore, one of the founders of Greenpeace, stated in a 2006 Washington Post op-ed, “Nuclear energy is the only large-scale, cost-effective energy source that can reduce…emissions while continuing to satisfy a growing demand for power.”

Other nations have also realized nuclear energy’s potential. Following the 1973 oil crisis, when the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (which consisted of the Arab members of OPEC in addition to Egypt and Syria) announced that it would no longer export oil to countries that supported Israel, France began increasing its production of nuclear power plants in an effort to reduce its dependence on foreign sources of energy. Today, France meets 80 percent of its total energy needs with nuclear power and is even able to export surplus energy to Britain and Italy, according to a 2006 National Public Radio report. And on top of the clear benefits for France, the country has also experienced a steady decline in per capita emissions of CO2 since the 1970s.

The United States, on the other hand, satisfies its electricity needs from a combination of sources, more than half from approximately 600 coal-fired electric plants that ultimately produce, according to Dr. Moore, “36 percent of the U.S. emission – or nearly 10 percent of global emissions – of CO2…”

The idea of nuclear energy concerns many Americans, who, for example, recall the accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. But as Dr. Moore highlights in the same Post op-ed, though people were evacuated, the accident at Three Mile Island was “in fact a success story: The concrete containment structure did just what it was designed to do – prevent radiation from escaping into the environment…there was no injury or death among nuclear workers or nearby residents…[and] was the only serious accident in the history of nuclear energy generation in the United States, but it was enough to scare us away from further developing the technology: There hasn’t been a nuclear plant ordered up since then.”

Another misplaced concern about nuclear power is how to deal with nuclear waste. In a speech at Hillsdale College, journalist William Tucker discussed how recycling nuclear energy byproducts could significantly reduce the amount of “waste” that must be stored. “[I]n 1977, President Carter decided to outlaw nuclear recycling…as a result, more than 98 percent of what will go into Yucca Mountain is either natural uranium or useful material,” said Tucker. France, conversely, is able to recycle its nuclear byproducts, which allows all of its “high-level nuclear waste” accumulated over the past quarter century to be stored in “a single room at Le Havre.”

Building new nuclear plants faces other challenges. It is capital-intensive and involves long lead times to begin building a nuclear power plant. This is primarily because of the amount of government regulation involved in commissioning a new nuclear power plant, including the costs of environmental reviews and permits.

But, as the public becomes increasingly informed of the advantages of nuclear power, its misgivings about this renewable energy source should diminish. The benefits to Americans could be great – a clean and renewable source of energy that is produced in the United States.

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Las Vegas SUN
March 30, 2008

Winning West not a given for Arizona’s senator

Presumptive GOP nominee breezes in and out of his stop in Vegas

By J. Patrick Coolican

Sen. John McCain came to town Friday, a reminder to Democrats that their plan to take the White House via the intermountain West may now be in doubt.

Nevada and other states in the region, including Colorado and New Mexico, are seen as seen as crucial battlegrounds whether the Democratic nominee is Illinois Sen. Barack Obama or New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Republicans have saved themselves by nominating a westerner, said Tom Schaller, a political scientist who recently wrote a book arguing Democrats should cede the south and pursue a western strategy to match their strength on the coasts and the upper Midwest. “Of the Republicans, he was their best bet,” Schaller said.

McCain, who has represented Arizona in Congress and the Senate since the 1980s, will win his home state and likely take the solidly Republican states of Utah, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

Holding the whole region, as McCain adviser Charlie Black recently predicted, is an exaggeration, Schaller said. Still, the affable former Navy fighter pilot, who was a POW and has broad crossover appeal with independents and Democrats, will be formidable in the West. This is especially so as Obama and Clinton continue to bang away on each other, unable to turn their full attention to McCain.

But McCain’s quick Friday visit to Las Vegas also showed his vulnerabilities. He finished third in the Republican contests here in January.

McCain is badly underfunded compared with his Democratic rivals, who have raised $360 million to McCain’s $66 million, though he tried to rectify that with a fundraiser Friday at national Republicans’ favorite Las Vegas stopover, the Venetian, whose owner Sheldon Adelson is one of the most generous conservative donors in the country.

McCain is also facing a difficult issue environment. In a recent speech on the mortgage crisis, he warned of government doing too much and said his administration would take a laissez-faire approach, not the best message for the many voters feeling economically insecure.

During a brief news conference after the fundraiser, McCain encouraged the national press corps traveling with him to contribute to the struggling local economy. (The Sun heard a recording of his comments; the news conference ended before its scheduled beginning, not atypical for the unpredictable McCain.)

McCain’s typically good-humored barb was his only comment on the local economy. Obama and Clinton, by contrast, have made a point to talk about the local economy when in Nevada, and each has detailed, robust plans to deal with the mortgage mess.

McCain’s strength is national security and his staunch and faithful support for America’s effort in Iraq. That position isn’t exactly convenient at the moment, however, as rival Shiite groups do battle in Baghdad and the southern city of Basra. There are reports of Iraqi government forces joining the rival faction. Saboteurs badly damaged the country’s second largest oil pipeline.

McCain said the Iraqi government’s attempt to stamp out its Shiite rival and its radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr, is a “sign of strength” of the Maliki government. He said he respects the decision and hopes the Iraqi government is successful.

The new fighting, coming after months of reduced violence credited in part to America’s increased military presence, seemed to illustrate the lack of political progress in Iraq and the complexity of the ethnic and sectarian conflict. By grounding his candidacy on such a fragile situation, McCain could face these difficult moments from now until November.

Finally, McCain is not with Nevadans on some local issues. He said he followed the advice of respected college basketball coaches when he offered legislation banning college sports betting. As he noted, the legislation isn’t going anywhere, but his proposal may still bother some Nevadans given the effect it would have on the local economy.

McCain has also long favored Yucca Mountain, though he’s recently said he would abide by what scientists say is safe and effective. The time for delaying a solution, however, is finished, he said.

These local vulnerabilities might leave McCain on the margins, as voters tend to vote on national issues and perceptions of character in presidential races.

Given these vulnerabilities, though, Schaller said the eventual Democratic nominee needs to take on McCain in the West, which could ease the pressure for a Democratic victory in Ohio in the race for 270 electoral votes.

Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado, which is the site of the Democratic National Convention in August, are worth 19 electoral votes, or just one shy of Ohio, and enough for victory.

J. Patrick Coolican can be reached at 259-8814 or at patrick.coolican@lasvegassun.com.

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KLAS-TV
March 29, 2008

John McCain Visiting Las Vegas

Edward Lawrence
Reporter

The apparent Republican nominee for president, John McCain was in Las Vegas Friday. The senator spoke at a fundraiser at the Venetian, talking about what he can do for Nevada as president.

The fundraiser was a $1,000 lunch at the Venetian. $2,300 got you a picture with the senator. No media were allowed into the luncheon, but afterward the presidential hopeful talked with Eyewitness News.

The senator arrived at about 11:00 a.m. There was a small group of supporters cheering him on. Some of them went on to the luncheon.

During his interview, McCain talked briefly about the economy. He also talked about the latest violence in Iraq, saying that we must try to ensure peace in the region. He spent the longest amount of time talking about the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

McCain says he supports shipping all of the nation's nuclear waste to the site 90 miles north of Las Vegas, as long as the science says it's safe.

"Obviously, the more sites there are that have spent nuclear fuel in them, the more likelihood that they could be, and I emphasize could be, the target of terrorist organizations. I want to get the issue resolved. I do not think it is fair to the American people for us to have this issue drag out and drag out indefinitely as it has for many years," he said.

The senator did say that if there was scientific evidence that contradicted the safety of Yucca Mountain as a repository, he would look at that closely.

This is the senator's ninth fundraiser in five days. The luncheon lasted for about an hour and raised about $50,000. The campaign will not say how much the total raised in the past five days has been.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
March 29, 2008

Yucca Mountain: License challenges could exceed 650

Agency prepares to review construction application

By Steve Tetreault
Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Nevada could launch between 250 and 500 license challenges to Yucca Mountain, state officials said, making the proposed radioactive waste repository by far the most contentious issue ever weighed by nuclear safety regulators.

All told, "we could be looking at about 650 plus proposed contentions from 11 parties," NRC spokesman David McIntyre said in an e-mail, adding that would be the most ever filed in a licensing case since the agency revised its rules in 1989. It is likely that some will be combined or weeded out.

Among other high profile cases, McIntyre said 138 contentions were submitted when the NRC considered the Private Fuel Storage application to temporarily store nuclear waste on the Goshute Indian Reservation in Utah, although only 25 were admitted into the hearing. About 100 contentions were filed in an ongoing license renewal case for the Indian Point nuclear power station in New York, he said.

Nevada officials said they are preparing technical challenges to the Department of Energy's science research and engineering designs for the Yucca site 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Bob Loux, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, said the state also plans to object to DOE's fitness as an operator. He said the state will point out DOE has struggled with quality assurance over the years and for a time did not adequately control harmful dusts that were ingested by tunnel workers.

The planned challenges reflect the scope of the first-ever attempt to license underground high level nuclear waste storage.

The DOE will try to persuade safety regulators that specially designed waste canisters and the warren of tunnels it wants to build a thousand feet below the surface and a thousand feet above the water table will prevent decaying nuclear particles from leaking into groundwater and seeping into the neighboring valley.

It also shows the intent of Nevada leaders to pull out the stops to kill an unpopular project that was forced on the state.

"Nevada has suggested for some time that it would be filing a lot of contentions," said Michael Bauser, deputy general counsel of the Nuclear Energy Institute. "This is a first of its kind proceeding and we expected it to be hotly contested. I would imagine it would be as much of a challenge as any proceeding the NRC has undertaken so far.

If the NRC agrees to docket the application after an initial three month examination, the agency would perform internal safety studies and convene public hearings where controversies surrounding the decades-long project are expected to be aired in a courtroom-style atmosphere.

Loux previously said Nevada could present as many as 2,000 contentions, a number so high it caused industry and government officials to bolt up and take notice. Loux said he put the number out there "to keep the DOE and the NRC a little off-balance."

--Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or (202) 783-1760.

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Las Vegas Review-Journal
March 29, 2008

Presidential Politics: McCain downplays issues

Probable GOP nominee addresses college sports betting, Yucca

By Molly Ball
Review-Journal

In Nevada for the first time since becoming the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, John McCain downplayed positions of his that are unpopular in the state.

Asked about his opposition to legal betting on college sports and his support for the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, McCain put both issues in the past tense.

The betting surrounding March Madness, the NCAA Tournament in its second week, is a major boon to the Las Vegas casino economy. McCain once proposed legislation to make it illegal.

"I felt that way because the college coaches, the most respected people in America, came to me and said that they believed that there was enormous temptation before their young athletes," McCain said during a brief local media availability that ended before its scheduled start time.

On the nuclear dump site about 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, which most Nevadans oppose, McCain stressed the importance to national security of finding somewhere to store spent nuclear fuel currently at power plants across the country. But he indicated he could be persuaded to end his support for Yucca as the site.

"I will respect scientific opinion," he said. "The scientific opinion that I had up until recently was that Yucca Mountain was a suitable storage place."

McCain was in Las Vegas primarily for a high-ticket lunch fundraiser at The Venetian, hosted by casino executives Sheldon Adelson, chairman of Venetian parent Las Vegas Sands Corp., and Terry Lanni, chairman and CEO of MGM Mirage. Admission to the fundraiser started at $1,000.

Adelson and Lanni are often rivals but were brought together by their shared Republican ideology and their mutual friendship with event co-host Sig Rogich, a local Republican power broker and longtime McCain ally.

The campaign wouldn't give fundraising totals from the stop, but knowledgeable sources said more than $500,000 was raised from the approximately 350 people in attendance.

Friday's event was the last stop on a tour of Western states for McCain, a four-term senator from Arizona. His campaign said he was headed from Las Vegas back home to Phoenix.

McCain was joined Thursday in Salt Lake City and Denver by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who beat McCain in those states' primary contests, as he did in Nevada.

Romney did not continue to Nevada with McCain. But McCain said Friday that the alliance of the two men, who were bitterly at odds during the campaign, was proof of party unity going forward to November and that they would continue to campaign together.

"It was an important sign of the kind of unity that we've achieved in our party since the primaries were basically concluded," he said. "I'm pleased to note that Governor Romney will be campaigning with me in various places in the future."

Democrats have been sharply critical of McCain on the economy, where he has warned of excessive government intervention to fix the current crisis in the markets. His critics say McCain has failed to come up with a comprehensive plan to address the issue.

In Nevada, the state with the highest home foreclosure rate in the nation, McCain made only a passing, joking reference to economic woes.

"I hope you'll enjoy the rest of your time here," he said in wrapping up the seven-minute news conference. "Remember that there's an ailing economy here in Las Vegas, and I'm sure that all of you will help out in repairing it."

The comment appeared to be directed at the members of the national media who travel with McCain. They were the principal audience for the short news conference, the candidate's only public appearance in Nevada on this trip.

Because the question-and-answer session ended nearly 10 minutes before it was supposed to start, most local reporters who were on time to the event missed it and had no chance to ask the candidate about local concerns.

A campaign spokesman said the scheduling mix-up was unintentional and not an attempt to avoid the local media.

Jeff Sadosky said McCain will be back to campaign in Nevada and that the senator's home region is important to him.

"Serving as a senator from Arizona for over two decades and being an Arizonan, he uniquely understands the challenges faced in the West," Sadosky said. "Growing economies, land use, water, the immigration issue: These are the issues that are at the core of the future of America's West and that he's been on the forefront of for decades."

Many of those in attendance at the fundraiser, including Adelson who backed Rudy Giuliani, had supported other Republican candidates. Fundraiser co-host Rogich said he believed they were won over by McCain and "proud to have him as their nominee."

During the fundraiser, "He gave an inspirational speech about his position on the economy, and he acknowledged the problems we're having right now," Rogich said afterward. "It was just vintage McCain, candid and forthright on the issues at hand."

McCain also spoke about Iraq and the environment, Rogich said.

Next week, McCain is scheduled to undertake a "Service to America" tour, visiting places across the country that shaped him personally, beginning with Meridian, Miss., where an airfield is named after his grandfather, who was an admiral in the U.S. Navy.

The tour is slated to hit McCain's high school in Virginia; Annapolis, Md.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Prescott, Ariz.

Contact reporter Molly Ball at mball@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2919.

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Las Vegas SUN
March 29, 2008

Why McCain didn’t stick around Vegas very long

By Jon Ralston

If you supported a project most of the state opposed, if you advocated for a measure that would hurt the state’s major industry and if you pushed for a laissez faire approach to a national crisis that hit the state hardest, you’d probably duck the local media, too.

So it was hardly surprising that Yucca Mountain-lover, college sports betting-hater and mortgage crisis-downplayer John McCain, who couldn’t find Nevada on a map during the presidential caucus, scooted out of the Venetian on Friday after a little more than 10 minutes of a falsely dubbed “media availability.”

McCain started 15 minutes before the scheduled start time — several reporters missed it — and answered only a handful of questions — not allowing follow-ups before making a quick exit through a side door.

Now you see him, mostly Nevadans don’t — unless you are a major donor here, that is. Has anyone told McCain that Nevada, while it has gone for Republicans every election but two in 40 years, is turning more Democratic by the day and shouldn’t be taken for granted? Is he taking a page from George W. Bush’s book and hoping to avoid us local yokels for the duration of the campaign?

I’m not whining — I actually saw McCain’s performance. I arrived early and caught most of it — only by the grace of the usually unforgiving traffic gods. And I also know that most Nevadans will not vote for president based on how they feel about Yucca Mountain or college sports betting, although their home mortgage situation might drive their ballot.

But if anyone had the impression McCain didn’t care about Nevada or was taking the state for granted — and I don’t know how anyone could believe that — the Arizona senator certainly cemented it Friday. Like President Bush, he seems to like us most for the money he can rake in at fundraisers but doesn’t respect us the next morning — or after we vote for him.

McCain did field two questions from two early-bird reporters — I was forlornly left with my hand raised when he made his dash for the exit. One from a local radio reporter was about why he opposes college sports betting.

“I feel that way because the most respected people in America came to me and said this was a temptation for their young athletes,” McCain said as if by rote. “These were NCAA coaches. I respect their views.”

Left unanswered:

• How hard will you push for this as president?

• What about illegal sports betting?

• Do you get a sense that college athletes’ shaving points is an epidemic?

• Have any of the GOP members of the Nevada delegation or any Strip casino bosses lobbied you to try to change your mind?

McCain then took a TV reporter’s question about Yucca Mountain, asking him his position and what he would do as president. When he began with a page from W’s book, my hand shot up.

“Obviously I would accede to whatever scientific, credible scientific opinion is,” McCain started, bringing back painful memories of the president’s programmed “sound science” sound bites. And we know how soundly Bush considered science when he accelerated the process right after the inauguration.

And if you think McCain will be any better, consider what he said next: “I would point out that long studies were conducted before Yucca Mountain was recommended.”

Oh, really? This from the senator who was around when those studies were short-circuited and who was among those who helped single out Nevada (remember 1987 and the Screw Nevada Bill?), thus putting politics over science and trying to make the study as short as possible.

McCain went on to disgorge his standard national security rhetoric and added he was “worried” because “we have sites at every nuclear power plant around the nation.” And I wonder where the waste would go if it were not left at those sites.

Some possible follow-ups:

• Why have you voted for Yucca Mountain every time you could, including trying to circumvent the original bill’s intent by backing interim storage?

• How far would you go as president to push this project forward?

• You are a huge critic of wasteful federal spending — shouldn’t the government stop expending billions at Yucca Mountain and find an alternative because the project already is a decade overdue?

But McCain already was headed for the door, a maddening end to this March nonnews conference. He left parting words for the press corps, smiling as he alluded to the casinos and asking the national media folks to “help out the economy here.”

Now what is there to bet on this weekend, Senator?

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PolitickerNV
March 29, 2008

McCain on Yucca: “We have to find somewhere to store nuclear fuel”

By Joseph K. Cooper

LAS VEGAS-Presumptive Republican nominee Ariz. Sen. John McCain was in Las Vegas today, raising campaign cash and holding a very brief news conference just far enough ahead of schedule that it was missed by many local media outlets.

Due to the lack of local press, McCain's press conference was largely about national issues like the war in Iraq. He did, however, briefly address two major Nevada issues, his one-time support of a ban on amateur sports betting and his stance on the nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain. McCain's answers to these issues, particularly in regards to Yucca Mountain, are likely to set off a firestorm of criticism in coming days and may have seriously harmed his chances to win Nevada this fall.

On Yucca Mountain, McCain said that he would "accede to whatever scientific-credible scientific-opinion is."

"I would point out that long studies were conducted before Yucca Mountain was recommended. If there's scientific evidence that contradicts that recommendation then I would certainly pay close attention to it.

"But I want to say that we have to find somewhere to store spent nuclear fuel. I mean, it's just a fact of life."

McCain connected the repository to fears of terrorist attack on the many sites that house spent nuclear fuel across the country.

"It's not only an environmental issue, it's not only all the other aspects of it, but it's a national security issue," said McCain, "because obviously the more sites there are that have spent nuclear fuel in them, the more likelihood that they could be, and I emphasize ‘could,' be the target of terrorist organizations.

"So I want to get the issue resolved and I don't think it's fair to the American people for us to have this issue just drag out and drag out indefinitely as it has for many years. I will respect scientific opinion. The scientific opinion that I had up until recently was that Yucca Mountain was a suitable storage place, so I hope that explains my position on it."

McCain's stance represents very risky politics in Nevada, where voters overwhelmingly oppose the site. Unlike McCain, both Democratic presidential hopefuls, N.Y. Sen. Hillary Clinton and Ill. Sen. Barack Obama, have publicly declared their opposition to the site.

McCain also sought to downplay his one-time support for a ban on amateur sports betting, saying that "I felt that way because the college coaches, the most respected people in America, came to me and said that they believed that there was enormous temptation before their young athletes and these were NCAA coaches including the head of the coaching organization and I respect their views.

"Obviously that legislation was not going to be successful, but when people like coach Krzyzewski of Duke and Dean Smith and people that are the most respected people in America come to you and tell you of something that they're concerned about, I think you should take their views seriously."

Despite McCain's claim that he knew the bill wouldn't be passed, it was a serious-enough threat at the time to prompt Ensign to seek a post on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

"One of the reasons you want to get on Commerce is because John McCain sticks his fingers into so many things, including the NCAA betting bill," Ensign told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2001. "You want to be on there to fight that battle."

Although scheduled for 1:55 p.m. with a press check-in at 1:40 p.m., McCain took questions somewhat earlier and was already out of the building before many reporters, including those from the two major Las Vegas newspapers, had arrived.

The early exit led some local media to question whether McCain was avoiding answering questions about Nevada-specific issues and prompted Las Vegas Sun columnist and host of "Face to Face" Jon Ralston to suggest "they're just ducking us."

McCain's campaign disputed that later this afternoon.

"The schedule was running a little bit ahead of time," said McCain spokesman Jeff Sadosky. "We did not mean to inconvenience any members of the press."

With McCain's "straight talk" on those two issues, however, it's easy to see why he may have wanted to avoid the questions altogether.

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EcoWorld
March 29, 2008

Editor's Commentary

Greens and James Inhofe

Too many environmentalists assume if you want to be an environmentalist, you have to disagree with Senator Inhofe’s positions on the environment, if not consider him nuts, and you should rejoice and support his being targeted by environmental organizations to “eliminate” him in November 2008.

These same environmentalist forces eliminated the unbowed California Congressman Richard Pombo in the 2006 election, and now they’re taking their war to Oklahoma; to the American heartland.

The problem with environmentalists targeting Inhofe is that nothing is necessarily wrong with Senator Inhofe’s positions on the environment.

They might even be considered rational environmentalist positions. As Inhofe tirelessly advocates, we need more public works projects; more canals, more deep water reservoirs, more freeways, more parking garages and urban street arteries. We need to build more nuclear power plants and more fossil fuel infrastructure of almost all types. Naturally all of these projects need to be state-of-the-art and clean, but along with “green” innovations, we need them in order to help make us energy independent and prosperous, and so does the rest of the world.

Another of Inhofe’s “crimes” is to try to open Yucca Mountain. But why is it so hard to get Yucca Mountain open for business? We’ve dug deep into a huge mountain in one of the most remote, inert areas on earth. Even if there is some kind of cataclysmic earthquake or water intrusion - extremely unlikely - so what? The waste is planned to be within containers so strong you could practically drop them from orbit and nothing bad would escape. Opening up Yucca Mountain and starting to empty and clean up smaller dumps around the USA and elsewhere seems fine to me. How many cubic meters of nuclear waste equate to 50 gigawatt-years, anyone? And commissioning nukes could help save the rainforest from pre-green biofuel incarnations.

Perhaps addressing all of Inhofe’s infrastructure agenda isn’t necessary. But too many environmentalists don’t want ANY infrastructure. By the time anything significant is built, it costs 10x and takes 10x as long, and happens 1/10th as often as it should. Many things desperately needed, like more freeways, are off the table. Projects are backed up and our economy suffers because today anti-Inhofe environmentalists wield far too much influence, blocking and micromanaging all development.

For his failure to recognize the deadly role of CO2 in our planetary future, Inhofe is a heretic, and like all such heretics today, he is the target of an internationally coordinated professional propaganda effort to demonize him in the public eye. His motives, his sanity, and all of his associations are called into question. This is not healthy debate, nor civil; environmentalists are worthy of something better.

We should embrace debate as to what it is to be a rational environmentalist. We should accept both infrastructure proponants as well as global warming skeptics into the environmentalist fold, because the strengths of their convictions may be no less sincere, and their contributions no less valid. And to those professionals who are targeting Inhofe from Oklahoma, an independent voice in the heartland of America, know this: California is also in play, because the truth is stronger than the trend, and it is wrong to try to silence and demonize those who disagree.

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KVBC
March 28, 2008

John McCain talks Yucca Mountain during Vegas trip

Marie Mortera

A busy campaign week for Senator John McCain ended in Las Vegas on Friday. It's been about a year since his last visit to Nevada and obviously a lot has changed since then for the likely Republican nominee.

Mccain spent most of his time at a fundraising lunch at the Venetian, but afterwards he spent a few minutes with reporters. That's when he touched on Yucca Mountain.

He said he was concerned about the impact of storing nuclear waste, but stopped short of going against the project all together. "We have to find somewhere to store spent nuclear fuel. It's just a fact of life. I don't think it's fair for American people to have issue drag out drag out indefinitely as it has in many years."

His take on gaming also came up in the press conference. McCain plans to return to the Silver State before the summer.

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Las Vegas SUN
March 28, 2008

Flashpoint:

The Democrats have pulled out all the stops

By Jon Ralston

The Democrats, not surprisingly, have pulled out all the stops to try to cast a pall over GOP presidential hopeful John McCain’s visit to Nevada today. Conference calls to expose McCain’s record on Western issues. Veterans saying he’s bad for veterans. And I’m sure protesters will be out in force with funny outfits and funny signs to mock his visit. But beyond all the political nonsense, there are three questions McCain should answer. No. 1: Why did you ignore the state in the run-up to our caucus? No. 2: Why have you supported Yucca Mountain at almost every conceivable turn? And No. 3: Why would you crusade against betting legally on college sports when illegal betting is so much bigger? I await the answers.

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PolitickerNV
March 28, 2008

Waiting for straight talk, seeing the express

By Wally Edge

As we speak, Senator John McCain is in Nevada to rally his supporters and collect some dough.

The Democrats paved the way for McCain this morning with multiple releases questioning his past support of the Yucca Mountain project and his proposed amateur sports betting ban. With his visit at the height of March Madness, camp McCain had to see this coming. And one of Nevada’s own is on his team: Brooke Buchanan, UNLV grad and Nevada communications director for Bush/Cheney ’04 is on team McCain and knows Nevada.

But so far it’s been silence on these issues from the McCain camp. It will be interesting to see if McCain addresses these, or if he will just collect checks from Nevada and write off the state as he did in the primary.

Will we see straight talk, or just an express visit to collect dollars?

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Lexington Herald Leader
March 28, 2008

Lawmakers seek end to nuclear power plant ban

Construction Forbidden Before Federal Waste Disposal System Ready

By John Cheves

FRANKFORT --Some lawmakers hope to lift a longstanding ban on construction of nuclear power plants in Kentucky.

Senate Bill 156 would repeal a 1984 law that prohibits new nuclear plants until the federal government finalizes a nuclear waste disposal system. So far, the government has not, despite controversial plans to establish Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a national radioactive waste disposal site.

Rather than wait for a federal solution, Kentucky should simply allow its Public Service Commission to begin the approval process for nuclear plants, said Sen. Bob Leeper, an Independent from Paducah and the bill's sponsor. His district includes the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant, the only operating uranium enrichment facility in the nation.

Without a national disposal site, plants in Kentucky would have to make their own plans for waste storage.

About 30 companies are currently considering whether and where in the United States to open nuclear plants that could result in $4 billion investments each, Leeper said.

"I just want to put Kentucky on the map," Leeper told the House Committee on Natural Resources and the Environment on Thursday.

Chairman Jim Gooch, D-Providence, said he likes the bill and considers coal and nuclear to be America's energy future, while wind and solar power offer "false hopes."

However, Gooch's committee could not approve the bill Thursday because too few of its members attended the hearing to provide a quorum. A special hearing might be called in the final days of the 2008 session to adopt the bill and allow it the House vote it needs to reach the governor's desk and be signed into law, Gooch said.

In the audience, environmental activist Tom FitzGerald said he opposes the bill because it "would send the wrong message" on nuclear power, particularly as the national debate over radioactive waste does not appear settled.

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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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