Environmental, reform activists hail report calling for program cuts

Wednesday, Feb. 5, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

The 1997 Green Scissors report, released on Tuesday at news conferences across the country, targeted 57 federal programs that report backers said benefit polluters.

"Millions of taxpayer dollars are wasted every year," Justin Ruben of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group said at the coalition's news conference here.

"We're outraged that we're cutting other programs while corporate polluters are living high on the hog."

Among other things, the Green Scissors report said Congress should eliminate forest road building programs that benefit the timber industry, reform mining and grazing laws and abolish various energy-related subsidies.

It also called for a spending halt on developing a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain and the shutdown of the Nevada Test Site in southern Nevada.

"We are outraged at the federal government's insistence on pouring our tax dollars into the bottomless pit of the Yucca Mountain project," said Lee Daizey, northern Nevada director of the government watchdog group Citizen Alert.

The report said all spending on Yucca Mountain should be stopped until an independent review determines whether the site is scientifically sound to house nuclear waste for thousands of years.

A complete shut down of the Nevada Test Site would save $163 million a year, the report said.

Bob Tonelli, vice chairman of the Reform Party of Nevada, said the targeted programs amount to "corporate welfare" and are the result of a political system run amok.

"Corporate welfare is the outgrowth of what the real problem is, and the real problem is the money going into campaign coffers," said Tonelli.

He said large industries use big campaign contributions to garner political favor and retain funding.

"Congress and the Clinton administration should use the Green Scissors report to cut the federal budget and save money and the environment," Ruben said.

In the past, Green Scissors claims it has won support from Congress and the administration to kill 11 projects, saving nearly $20 billion.