Columnist Jon Ralston: Will Bush’s energy report have Yucca surprise?

Wednesday, May 16, 2001 | 9:02 a.m.

Jon Ralston hosts the public affairs program "Face to Face" on Las Vegas ONE and also publishes the Ralston Report. His column for the Sun appears on Sundays and Wednesdays. Ralston can be reached at 870-7997 or by e-mail at ralston@vegas.com

IS THIS the week the Bush administration finally comes clean on its nuclear waste policy?

When the president unveils his energy report Thursday, it's pretty clear he will advocate more nuclear plants. That we know. But what to do about all that waste piling up, that waste the industry doesn't want to store on site, the waste now slated for the only extant solution: Yucca Mountain?

Here's what isn't so clear: If, as was revealed this week by Vice President Dick Cheney, the Nevada site will not be mentioned in a task force report in a nuclear waste disposal section, and if the administration's energy point man says "certain technologies" will be recommended to dispose of the detritus, might we have a friend on the grounds of the Naval Observatory, after all?

Well, not so fast.

Here's what we know:

* Fact One: Cheney and Bush love nuclear power. And it's mutual. The nuclear industry loves Bush and Cheney -- remember all that money the power companies gave to the campaign last year and recall that a few of those folks had Bush's ear, too.

* Fact Two: Bush and Cheney danced all around the waste issue during their campaign as the presidential contender dodged the Nevada media and Cheney did the gratuitous stuff. Sound science, not politics. You know the drill.

* Fact Three: Cheney met with a whole gamut of people during the last few weeks in advance of the release of the power manifesto. Among those whispering in Cheney's ear were major energy companies -- Enron and Edison Electric, the company whose chief is a key Bush intimate and who wants Yucca Mountain built and now. Cheney also granted a 15-minute audience to Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign, who would not disclose what was said at the meeting, which would not seem to be a good sign. That is, if Cheney had told them, "Fellas, we are going to take Yucca off the table," I think we might have heard Ensign and Reid tell us about it. Loudly.

* Fact Four: Before he gave an interview to Reuters, in which he made those comments about Yucca Mountain not being in the report and hinted about those technologies, Cheney told the Associated Press something somewhat different.

Here's what he said:

"The Yucca Mountain (in Nevada) is the one that's most, that's farthest along and most advanced. ... It's been drawn out for a long time and if we want to promote the use of nuclear energy, then clearly we've got to address the waste question and get it resolved." Get it resolved, eh? That's code for Yucca Mountain, isn't it?

* Fact Five: Reid has suggested that if the administration is so gung-ho on nuclear power, perhaps that could be, ahem, transmuted from a death knell to the battle against the dump to a deus ex machina to take Nevada out of the picture. Yes, the Senate minority whip (a powerful position, I understand, with his party) says that he might be willing to trade the support of Democrats to build more power plants in exchange for the administration disqualifying Yucca Mountain from consideration. That, for Nevada, would be the deal of the millennium.

Maybe, just maybe, Reid broached that deal with Cheney during his sit-down last week. (Wonder if his fellow Democrats know about their support being bartered for killing Yucca Mountain.)

It seems unfathomable that the same administration that is encouraging more nuclear plants into construction, that wants to renew a law that shields the companies from unlimited liability if accidents occur, and that has no connection whatsoever to Nevada of any significance (certainly not like ex-Gov. Bob Miller's relationship with Bill Clinton), would now save Nevada from the repository.

But why wouldn't Yucca Mountain be mentioned in the Bush energy policy? And what are those "new technologies?" We'll find out Thursday. And with those answers, we'll know more about whether those billions of dollars invested 90 miles north of Las Vegas will have just been an expensive experiment or the prelude to a nuclear waste dump.