Nevadans plan to file complaint in Yucca case

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Dec. 7, 2001 | 9:56 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada's lawmakers in Congress plan to file a formal complaint against the law firm that was shepherding the Department of Energy's Yucca Mountain project.

The firm, Chicago-based Winston & Strawn, quit last week amid charges it had a conflict-of-interest with a pro-Yucca lobby group.

Not content with that, Nevada lawmakers plan to file a complaint with the Illinois State Bar Association in hopes that firm lawyers may be disbarred, suspended or otherwise punished. The action is part of a larger effort by Nevada officials to kill the Yucca Mountain project.

"What they have done, I think, has so tarnished the whole process that we might find later on we can use that in some way," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.

Reid also said, "I believe in vengeance."

The firm had a $16.5 million contract with the DOE, helping the department develop an application for a license to bury 77,000 tons of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

Winston & Strawn lawyers said controversy about its former work for the pro-Yucca Nuclear Energy Institute was distracting the DOE -- and the firm -- from its job.

Firm officials strongly deny any wrongdoing, saying allegations made by Nevada officials had "no legal merit."

"Senator Reid has threatened congressional hearings, criminal investigations, and now bar proceedings," James R.Thompson, Winston & Strawn chairman, said in a written statement released by the firm. "I continue to have great respect for the senator and the entire Nevada congressional delegation, but the fact is that nobody has found a conflict except the Nevada delegation.

"Neither the (DOE) inspector general nor the Energy Department has found a conflict, and we don't believe we had one either."

But Nevada lawmakers see an opportunity to get more traction in their newly energized effort to kill the Yucca Mountain project. The project, in development by the Department of Energy since 1982, has not been approved by the president, Congress, or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The four-member Nevada delegation emerged from a meeting in Reid's office Thursday offering reporters a peek at a few of their new plans to kill the Yucca Mountain project, a $58 billion first-of-its-kind proposal.

The staffs of the lawmakers, along with Nevada Attorney General's office lawyers and Gov. Kenny Guinn, this week have been mapping out anti-Yucca strategies. More plans will be unveiled in the future, the lawmakers said.

The long-time, hit-or-miss effort of Nevada officials to kill the Yucca project got a burst of adrenaline last week when Winston & Strawn quit, and in a separate development, a draft copy of a congressional audit said the Yucca plan should be delayed until scientific studies are complete. That General Accounting Office report flew in the face of Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's plan to make a recommendation about the site to President Bush in the coming weeks.

Nevada lawmakers wrote a letter to Bush asking him to delay a decision. Now they plan to fire off another letter, this time stressing to the president that during his campaign he promised not to pursue a temporary waste site in Nevada until the permanent Yucca site is complete.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said "rumors" were floating that the DOE may again consider establishing an interim waste site, which Nevada officials also strongly oppose.

The four lawmakers also plan to send "Dear Colleague" letters to other members of Congress outlining setbacks to the Yucca project. They also are trying to generate national media interest in the story.

As Nevada officials plot, pro-Yucca forces are mustering, too.

One effort, led by a collection of nuclear energy company members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, plans a high-profile lobby effort in Congress. They plan to goad the government into approving and constructing the Yucca waste repository.

On Thursday the Chamber group, the Alliance for Energy & Economic Growth, called on Abraham to make a decision about Yucca Mountain within the next 30 days.

The Winston & Strawn controversy would not hurt the project, alliance leader John Sununu said Thursday.

"Law firms are a dime a dozen," Sununu said after a Thursday press briefing in Washington.

He criticized Reid for releasing excerpts of a draft copy of the GAO report to the media.

"By maneuvering to sensationalize the report through a calculated leak, the report is -- in the eyes of the Department (of Energy) -- dead on arrival," Sununu said in a prepared statement.