Bush draws from nuclear industry for energy team

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2001 | 11:21 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A number of nuclear-power industry leaders who back the plan to bury the nation's high-level radioactive waste in Nevada are among the advisers President-elect George W. Bush assembled to counsel him on energy issues.

Among those bending Bush's ear: Joe Colvin, president and chief executive officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the industry's leading advocacy and lobby group; and J. Bennett Johnston, the former Louisiana senator who authored the 1987 "Screw Nevada" bill that designated Nevada as the only state to be considered as a nuclear dumping ground.

Notably missing from the 48-member advisory team are environmentalists or anyone who opposes the plan to bury waste in Nevada, several activists said.

"To include NEI, especially, without any attempt at all at balancing that with anyone who represents an environmental perspective, is telling, it's disappointing," said Lisa Gue, policy analyst with Washington-based Public Citizen.

Bush's "Energy Transition Advisory Team" is a collection of leaders from mostly corporate backgrounds including energy company executives and lobbyists.

"The list reads like a who's who of the nuclear power industry," Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said.

Of the 48 members, at least 14 have strong ties to the nuclear power industry. Among them: Tom Kuhn, president of Edison Electric Institute, a lobbying arm of the electric power industry and active Yucca Mountain project advocate; and longtime Bush friend and fundraiser, TXU chairman Erle Nye. TXU operates two nuclear reactors in Texas.

Also on the team are Johnston aide Alex Flint; James Langdon, Jr. and Gregg Renkes -- leading lobbyists whose firms work for nuclear power companies; Steve Wakefield, executive with Southern Company and Tom Farrell, an executive with Dominion Energy -- both companies operate nuclear plants; and Judy Walsh and Pat Wood, both members of the Texas Public Utilities Commission, which oversees the nuclear power industry in Texas.

"It appears to me we have the industry directing policy," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said.

Of the 48 members, 34 gave donations to the Republican Party, in most cases through their companies' political action committees; 18 gave personal donations to Bush, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign money watchdog group.

Four of Bush's energy advisory team members were so-called Pioneers -- Bush friends who raised at least $100,000 for his campaign: Occidental Chemical president and CEO J. Roger Hirl; Enron Corp. executive Kenneth Lay; Langdon and Nye.

While no anti-dump activists sit on Bush's energy team, Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., has said Bush promised an "open-door" policy for Nevada Republicans to voice objections to the Yucca Mountain plan.

"After looking at the list, it's basically the same situation that it always has been in that obviously there are some members on there who have voiced strong support for Yucca Mountain," Gibbons spokeswoman Amy Spanbauer said. "It's always been the same battle with 49 states against one."

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., declined to comment, spokeswoman Traci Scott said.

Las Vegan Troy Wade is the only Nevadan on the team, but the former Nevada Test Site miner and a defense official for the Energy Department under President Ronald Reagan is a nuclear weapons and security expert. He is not privy to Yucca Mountain policy discussions, he said Monday.

The entire energy advisory team has not yet met as a group, but it may soon, Wade said.

Members of the advisory team act as an information resource for Bush's three-member "Energy Policy Coordination Group," which works out of the Bush-Cheney transition office in Washington. That group is:

Their job is to brief Bush's Energy Secretary pick, former Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., as he prepares for Senate confirmation hearings. They also will turn Bush's campaign commitments into detailed presidential proposals, according to a press released from the Bush-Cheney transition office.

The three were not available for comment on nuclear waste policy, said Angela Flood, who is serving as an energy team spokeswoman.

"It would be too early to do any policy pronouncements," Flood said.

Flood said Abraham is working with the three policy officers but has not yet set an agenda.

"As far as developing policy, it's a little presumptuous to do that prior to being confirmed," Flood said. But she added that nuclear waste disposal will be "very high" on Abraham's list of priorities "given that one of the main functions of the department is to deal with that issue."

As a senator, Abraham voted for legislation aimed at establishing the waste site at Yucca.

Abraham is contacting senators to garner support for his nomination, Flood said.