Editorial: Oil drilling vote offers us lessons

Tuesday, June 26, 2001 | 9:07 a.m.

It was stunning last week when the House voted 247-164 to stop President Bush's plan to drill for oil off the Florida coast. What made it all the more remarkable was that 70 Republicans defied the president and GOP House leaders on the controversial proposal, which also was opposed by environmentalists. The parallel is by no means perfect, but Florida's victory offers encouragement to Nevada's fight against federal government efforts to bury nuclear waste inside Yucca Mountain.

First, a key element to Florida's success was the near unanimity of that state's residents, including support from coastal businesses that argued oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico could wreak havoc with tourism. Here in Nevada, elected officials have had a tough time getting casinos on board in the fight against a nuclear waste dump. But in a promising sign, as the Sun reported Friday, casino executives now are acknowledging that a dump could harm Nevada's tourism industry and are poised to wield their clout with Congress on this issue.

Second, it was noteworthy that Florida's members of Congress were able to build bridges with congressmen from other states that didn't have a direct stake in the outcome. As the New York Times reported, many conservative Republicans from far-flung regions of the nation voted with the Floridians in order to get Florida's support on environmental concerns in their own back yards.

Admittedly nuclear waste is a significantly different issue in that Nevada not only is a small state, but it also is the only state being targeted as the permanent dumping ground for 77,000 tons of the lethal waste. This makes it more difficult to pick up support from elsewhere, but the Achilles' heel of the nuclear waste dump always has been transportation. It's been estimated that to get the waste to Yucca Mountain there would have to be 100,000 shipments through 43 states, and these states would be natural allies since a transportation accident could have devastating consequences for them, too.

The irony for Bush is that his proposals to solve the energy crisis have created fierce opposition, unintentionally creating more public support for environmental protection. While Bush, as part of his national energy strategy, has advocated a single dump to handle nuclear waste, the evidence over the years has shown Nevada a dangerous place to bury it. Nevadans can only hope that Bush's embrace of nuclear power has the same boomerang effect generated by his other controversial energy proposals.