Firm pushing nuclear repository throws bash for Nevada officials

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2000 | 11:16 a.m.

LOS ANGELES -- A prominent engineering and construction company vying for a federal contract for future work at a proposed nuclear waste dump in Nevada treated Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other state Democrats to an afternoon cocktail party Monday.

Bechtel Group Inc. joined Microsoft Corp. in hosting the event at the swank downtown restaurant Ciudad, which served banana chips hors d'oeuvres and mixed drinks. Robert Ragan, Bechtel's principal vice president, said his company, which almost 70 years ago helped construct Hoover Dam and now holds prominent contracts at the Nevada Test Site near Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, wanted to honor Nevada's senior senator.

"We have a long history in Nevada," Ragan said. "We're incorporated in Nevada."

Political conventions offer companies and lobbyists a weeklong opportunity to network with powerful policymakers.

At the Republican Convention earlier this month in Philadelphia, U.S. Senate candidate John Ensign told a group of lobbyists at a fund-raiser, "None of you can vote for me, but your checks will surely be welcomed."

Now the Democrats are schmoozing.

Chemical company Kerr-McGee, which gave Reid $1,000 in 1997, hosted a brunch in Santa Monica for Reid on Sunday.

Bechtel and Microsoft also have been donors: Microsoft gave $7,000 to Reid's Searchlight Leadership Fund political action committee in 1999 and 2000 and gave Ensign $2,000 this year, according to FECInfo, a nonprofit group that sorts donation data.

"Sen. Reid has been a great friend of Microsoft," Rick Miller, Microsoft public information manager, said while munching appetizers. "He's someone who really understands the industry and where you can really help consumers, but not have too much government intervention."

Bechtel gave Reid $6,000 in 1997 and 1998 for his campaign, tossing his then-opponent Ensign $2,000.

Both companies held only two or three receptions this week for specific lawmakers, including Reid.

But Reid said Bechtel officials were under no illusion that they were buying influence in an attempt to land multibillion-dollar contracts for future work at Yucca Mountain, where the federal government plans to bury nuclear waste in coming decades. Bechtel is among several bidders for the contracts, Ragan said.

"We don't have a deciding vote on who gets the contracts at Yucca," Reid said. "Somebody is going to do the work, and we have no control over who does the work."

Reid and Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., have been the most vocal opponents of the Yucca plan.

"I don't think that's any secret," Reid said.

Reid added that he regularly meets with Bechtel officials because they are contractors at the Test Site, a federal installation.

Reid stressed that Nevada's enemy was not companies that want a Yucca contract but a bad law that designated Yucca the nation's nuclear waste dump.

"What Sen. Bryan and I have said is that since 1982 we have disagreed with Nevada being the only site chosen (by Congress)," Reid said. "All we want is for the choice to be fair."

Republicans pounced on the Bechtel event. Nevada Republican Party executive director Ryan Erwin said Democrats were often quick to point out Republican ties to nuclear-related companies.

"It's the height of hypocrisy," Erwin said. "If the Democrats are so much better than Republicans on nuclear waste, why are they hanging around a company that wants to bring nuclear waste to Nevada?"

"All we want is for the choice to be fair."