Columnist Jeff German: Guinn in D.C. for big talks

Saturday, Feb. 24, 2001 | 10:41 a.m.

Jeff German is the Sun's senior investigative reporter. He can be reached at (702) 259-4067 or by e-mail at german@lasvegassun.com

OUR GOVERNOR has lined up meetings with political heavyweights in Washington this week in what may be his most important trip ever outside Nevada.

Kenny Guinn, who is attending the National Governors Association annual winter meeting, expects to sit down with four of President Bush's Cabinet members.

They are: Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman.

The governor also expects to talk energy issues with California Gov. Gray Davis, who is supposed to be in Washington for the NGA conference.

The meeting with Abraham, which takes place Monday afternoon, clearly is topping Guinn's agenda in the nation's capital.

It will be the first time Guinn will have a chance to talk at length with his fellow Republican about Yucca Mountain. As a senator from Michigan, Abraham supported the nuclear industry's efforts to store high-level radioactive waste in Nevada.

Guinn plans to be up front with Abraham about the state's opposition to turning Yucca Mountain into the country's first nuclear waste repository. He'll talk about the $5 million he has set aside in the state budget to fight the dump, and he'll ask the energy secretary for another $2.5 million to conduct more scientific studies of the mountain.

The governor also will remind Abraham of the commitment he received from Bush during last year's campaign. Bush promised Guinn, his Nevada campaign chairman, that he would veto any interim storage bill and would base a decision on permanent storage on science, not politics.

Another subject of discussion will be the energy crisis in California that now is threatening Nevada.

Guinn will ask Abraham to help him cut through federal red tape to ease the construction of new transmission lines here to get more natural gas and electricity to Nevadans in the coming years. The lines, which will feed off of new power plants, are crucial to the governor's six-point plan to guide the state through the energy crunch.

We can expect Yucca Mountain to come up in Guinn's meeting with Whitman Monday afternoon, as well. The EPA has authority to set the safety standards for a nuclear waste repository. Guinn also will be discussing air and water quality issues important to Nevada with Whitman, a former Republican governor of New Jersey.

On Tuesday morning Guinn meets with Mineta to talk about a second bridge over the Colorado River and then with Norton to discuss mining, fish and game, and land use issues. Guinn's deputy chief of staff, Victoria Soberinsky, has taken a key job as a special White House assistant to Norton.

Between all of this, Guinn will have dinner with the president and his fellow governors, and meet face-to-face with Davis.

Guinn wants to discuss with Davis how California's energy problems are affecting Nevada.

He will ask his Democratic colleague about the possibility of getting temporary generators at the pipelines in Southern California that pump gasoline and jet fuel to Las Vegas.

Guinn has received word that California expects more rolling blackouts this summer, and he doesn't want the random power outages to cause a fuel crisis for Southern Nevada's tourist-dominated economy.

The pipelines, which provide gasoline to Las Vegas service stations and jet fuel to McCarran International Airport and Nellis Air Force Base, were shut down briefly during rolling blackouts in California in January.

Guinn expects to be so busy this week that he won't have time to drop by the offices of Nevada's congressional delegation.

The lawmakers probably won't mind the friendly snub after they see the governor's heavyweight schedule.