Editorial: Battle will brew over the money

Monday, July 16, 2001 | 9:13 a.m.

It was encouraging to learn last week that a key Senate panel recommended a hefty cut in the funding for the Yucca Mountain Project. The Bush administration had sought $445 million to complete studies at Yucca Mountain, which is the only place in the nation being considered for a high-level nuclear waste repository. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development instead suggested that just $275 million be allocated, which would be the smallest budget in six years for the Yucca Mountain Project.

The influence of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is the principal reason for the significant decrease. Now that Democrats control the Senate, Reid is chairman of the subcommittee that has spending oversight of the Yucca Mountain Project. While Reid is also the No. 2 man in the Democratic Senate leadership, maintaining the reduced funding for the Yucca Mountain Project will not be easy, considering that so many states have nuclear power and want the waste shipped to Nevada. Indeed, there is a concerted push to loosen congressional oversight of the spending on the Yucca Mountain Project.

Rep. Joe Barton, one of the best friends the nuclear power industry has in Washington, is fighting hard to get legislation passed that would take away from Congress the power to determine every year how much money should be spent on the Yucca Mountain Project. Of course, the nuclear power industry would love it if the Texas Republican's legislation became law, allowing the Department of Energy to dip into the $10 billion national nuclear waste fund and use the money however it saw fit.

This year is shaping up as a pivotal one involving the fate of the Yucca Mountain Project, especially since it is expected that the Department of Energy will recommend the site later in 2001. Nevadans correctly have believed that they just haven't received a fair shake from the DOE, which hasn't treated seriously considerable evidence that Yucca Mountain is a dangerous place to bury man's deadliest waste. If Congress were to loosen its oversight of the Yucca Mountain Project, it could make the current situation -- as bad as it is -- even worse.