Editorial: Energy secretary needs credibility

Tuesday, April 7, 1998 | 10:58 a.m.

Pena, who will stay on until June 30, is the person at the helm of the agency that is studying whether or not Yucca Mountain should become a dump to store the nation's high-level nuclear waste. The Energy Department's track record in investigating Yucca Mountain has been abysmal, with an emphasis on politics over science. But Pena's stewardship of the agency was an improvement over his predecessor, Hazel O'Leary, who was cozy with the nuclear power industry.

Elizabeth Moler, the deputy secretary of energy and the former chairwoman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, has been mentioned as a likely successor to Pena. Whoever the president selects must be willing to stand up to the forces in Congress that want to put a temporary nuclear waste dump in Nevada; nuclear power advocates suggests it's just temporary but it's certain that a "temporary" dump will become a permanent dump soon after the first truckload of nuclear waste arrives.

Who heads the Energy Department is critical. Cabinet secretaries can play an important role in changing the mission and culture of a bureaucracy. It's obvious where the loyalties of Pena's predecessor, Hazel O'Leary, resided -- she was a former vice president of North States Power, which relied heavily on nuclear power and coal. As energy secretary, O'Leary never publicly stated it, but she was bent on putting nuclear waste in Nevada, even if objective science came to a different conclusion.

Her true colors showed just after she left office as energy secretary. O'Leary said the Clinton administration should put a temporary nuclear waste storage site in Nevada within a year. This was at direct odds with official White House policy, which has opposed a temporary dump.

O'Leary never left the impression that she truly believed in an objective assessment of the suitability of Yucca Mountain. It's imperative that the president select a nominee who has the guts to stand up to Congress and the nuclear power industry. That person must be truly committed to scientific inquiry and immune to the political pressures presented by Congress.