Editorial: Nevada shouldn’t let up now

Wednesday, April 3, 2002 | 8:42 a.m.

The nuclear power industry spent $25 million on lobbying and campaign contributions in 2000, the last year that Congress voted on legislation that would have sent nuclear waste to Nevada. That legislation would have become a reality if it hadn't been for President Clinton's veto and the ability of Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and Richard Bryan to gather enough votes to sustain it. Sometime within the next few months Congress will consider a plan that would permanently bury nuclear waste in Yucca Mountain -- a plan endorsed by President Bush -- and money again is no object for the influential industry.

Nevada's congressional delegation and state leaders want to counter the years of deceptive lobbying in which the industry has falsely claimed that the transportation and burial of nuclear waste was safe. So Nevada's current U.S. senators, Reid and John Ensign, asked Gov. Kenny Guinn to call a special session of the Legislature to allocate $10 million for television advertising and a grass-roots campaign. The media blitz would seek to generate public opposition to the Yucca Mountain project in order to increase the pressure on senators from states through which the waste would travel on its way to Nevada.

Guinn has run into trouble, though. He declined to call a special session after he couldn't get enough support from lawmakers. Now Guinn is turning to the Interim Finance Committee, which meets when the Legislature isn't in session, to come up with $3 million for the media campaign. Incredibly, some committee members have indicated they won't go along with the governor's request, even though Yucca Mountain poses the gravest threat to our state. It also was disappointing to learn that County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera's bid to get the commission to allocate $3 million to the anti-Yucca Mountain efforts hit a snag Tuesday when fellow commissioners postponed a decision.

Our state can't match the nuclear power industry dollar-for-dollar, but it is crucial that Nevada's officials have enough money to get out the word about the dangers posed by a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. Instead of dithering, our local and state officials should immediately give our congressional delegation some of the ammunition it will need to fight the Yucca Mountain project. It's now or never.