Editorial: Election could leave us with scary ending

Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2000 | 9:58 a.m.

There still is one week left until Election Day, but there already is much media speculation as to who may be asked to fill Cabinet posts in a Gore or Bush administration. Even Nevada's Democrat Sen. Richard Bryan, who chose not to run for re-election this year, was mentioned Monday in an Associated Press story as a possibility for either of two Cabinet posts if Al Gore wins. Not only is Bryan's name being bandied about to be secretary of the Department of Interior, but he also is being mentioned as heading up the Department of Energy. The latter post surely must make the nuclear power industry cringe since Bryan has been a vociferous critic of the DOE's scientific investigation to see if Nevada's Yucca Mountain is suitable to store the industry's high-level nuclear waste.

If the election goes the other way, though, there might be nightmares in store for Nevadans. If George W. Bush wins the White House, the AP reports there is conjecture that the Republican's DOE secretary could be Tom Kuhn, who runs the lobbying arm of the nuclear power industry, the Edison Electric Institute. The story mentions that Kuhn's relationship with Bush goes back to their college days, noting Kuhn is "a buddy from Yale." Bush's surrogates in Nevada, including Gov. Kenny Guinn and Rep. Jim Gibbons, have assured this state's residents that there is no difference between Gore and Bush on nuclear waste storage. But the mere fact that Kuhn's name would even surface unmasks Bush's truly frightful views on this issue. Happy Halloween.