Murkowski aide to lead energy panel

Thursday, Feb. 1, 2001 | 11:26 a.m.

A key aide to Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, the senator who spearheaded efforts to send high-level nuclear waste to Nevada before government studies at Yucca Mountain have been completed, was appointed Wednesday to lead President Bush's energy policy panel.

Andrew Lundquist, Murkowski's former chief of staff, has been hired as the staff director of new National Energy Policy Development Group, which Bush formed to write a comprehensive national energy plan.

Lundquist, a University of Alaska, Fairbanks, graduate, was staff director of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which Murkowski chairs, before becoming the senator's chief of staff. He also worked as legislative aide for Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.

Despite Lundquist's close connection to Murkowski, his appointment did not draw criticism from Nevada's senators, who bitterly fought Murkowski's attempts to ship nuclear waste to the state.

"I didn't expect President Bush to appoint a member of the Sierra Club to that position," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said today.

Reid noted that Lundquist brings to the panel expertise on oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other domestic sources as the United States faces an energy crisis.

The nation is facing more energy problems than nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain, Reid said. The mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is the only site under study as the world's first high-level radioactive waste repository for commercial and defense wastes.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said he did not know Lundquist.

"However, it's really no surprise that Bush would appoint Murkowski's top aide to the position," Ensign's spokeswoman Traci Scott said.

Reid noted that 25 percent of Bush's energy advisory team in the White House was connected to the nuclear power industry and 75 percent of them favored disposing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

Bush has stated that the decision on whether 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste will be buried at Yucca Mountain will be based on science.