Yucca case goes to Vermont

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, April 16, 2002 | 11:11 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada's effort to rally public opinion against a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain kicks off in earnest tonight with the premiere of a television ad in Vermont.

The state's first anti-dump commercial tells viewers that the nuclear power industry plans to drive waste "right through the towns we live in."

"People need to understand that this stuff is going to be transported through their state, past their schools and near their businesses," said Ed Rothschild, a principal with Podesta Mattoon who works with John Podesta, the state's Democratic lobbyist in Washington on Yucca. "A lot of people in a lot of states outside Nevada don't understand that yet."

The goal of the television spot is to influence Vermont Sens. Patrick Leahy and James Jeffords. Leahy is a Democrat and Jeffords is independent.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is urging both to side with him. Reid and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., are scrambling to line up 49 other senators to vote against a Yucca repository.

The proposed repository, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is awaiting congressional action in the next three months. Nevada leaders believe the only chance to stop it is in the Senate.

The anti-Yucca spot is being aired as a test to gauge the effectiveness a television ad can have on a senator, as well as the effectiveness of the ad's "transportation is dangerous" message.

As part of the state's coordinated push against the dump, roughly 100 representatives from environmental and other activist groups from about 20 states gathered today on the U.S. Capitol grounds for a rally to urge lawmakers to vote against Yucca.

Some also planned to meet with their lawmakers or staff today. Their message stays true to the transportation argument.

At this morning's rally, Chris Williams with the Indiana Citizens Action Coalition noted that Indiana's license plates say "Crossroads of America."

"Indiana would become the nation's nuclear freeway," Williams said. "And we say, 'No,' and the people of Indiana say, 'No.' "

Nevada's four lawmakers, along with Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., joined the activists. At one point, chants of "Safety, yes! Yucca, no!" echoed on the west steps of the Capitol.

"This is the time, this is the place, you are the people," Markey told the activists and a few onlookers. "You must mount this struggle against this environmental disaster."

Much of the pressure is on Ensign to rally GOP senators. After Ensign's speech, he would not say if any had agreed to vote against Yucca. Only Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., is leaning against the project.

However, Ensign is encouraged that a "significant number" of GOP senators had agreed to be "undecided" instead of pro-Yucca.

"That's all we're asking at this point," Ensign said. "To get a politician to switch, you've got to have real compelling arguments, which we think we have."

The nuclear industry put together its own dueling press conference an hour before the anti-Yucca rally. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, a leading Yucca advocate, called for Congress to vote on it in early May.

"We have reached a defining moment in our nation's energy history and our energy future," said Angie Howard, a Nuclear Energy Institute vice president. "It is not the first. It will not be the last. But it is momentous. And it calls on Congress to act in the best interests of United States energy security and the American people."

The nuclear industry has dismissed Nevada leaders' arguments that the transportation of nuclear waste is dangerous. Industry lobbyists and leaders say there have been hundreds of safe shipments without a problem and say Nevadans are playing on a fear of the unlikely.

But Nevada leaders believe the message is among their best, and the ad reflects that. The ad also touches on the premise that the nuclear industry wants to construct more new plants in America, which may resonate with anti-nuclear Easterners, Nevada officials hope.

The narrator, actor Ed Begley Jr., says: "Dozens of new nuclear power plants, that's the goal of the nuclear power industry. And that's why they're lobbying the Senate to let them move 77,000 tons of deadly nuclear waste.

"Driving it right through the towns we live in, with over 50,000 nuclear trucks and trainloads moving though our streets, even the government admits, accidents are inevitable. And terrorist attacks will become harder than ever to prevent."

The 30-second spot is scheduled to air tonight in the Burlington, Vt., area. The advertisement will run on ABC and NBC affiliates in the next few weeks, Nevada officials said. The area's CBS affiliate declined to run the ad.

The advertisement was the first commercial to run in an effort to urge congressional lawmakers to oppose the project aimed at burying the nation's most radioactive nuclear waste under Yucca Mountain.

A state official said the ad would run in Oregon, Utah, Wyoming and Missouri after its run in Vermont.

Oregon is represented by Sens. Ron Wyden, a Democrat who has voted with Nevada senators against Yucca legislation; and Republican Gordon Smith, who has voted for Yucca legislation.

Missouri is represented by Sen. Jean Carnahan, D-Mo., a freshman lawmaker who has grave concerns about waste transportation, but has not publicly said how she would vote. Republican Sen. Kit Bond, is leaning in favor of the project, aides say.

Wyoming and Utah have Republican senators -- Sens. Craig Thomas and Michael Enzi in Wyoming and Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett. All four have voted in favor of Yucca.

Nevada officials, along with the Sierra Club, Physicians for Social Responsibility and Vermont Public Interest Research Group, arranged for the the television spot and helped pay for its production. The Sierra Club purchased the Vermont air time, but Rothschild would not say how much it will cost by the end of its run.