Legislature has few options in 2003

Erin Neff

Monday, Feb. 18, 2002 | 9:34 a.m.

If the Nevada Legislature were in session right now, the 64 lawmakers could have a say in the Yucca Mountain fight.

But meeting just 120 days every two years leaves the Legislature without a role in the current battle, and there are few options when it does convene next year.

Short of resolutions condemning the federal government's decision to build a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, state lawmakers really can't do much.

"I'd love to see us as a state invoke the 10th amendment and see how far we could get," Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas, said.

But O'Connell doesn't know quite how Nevada can legally argue for state's rights when her own Legislature couldn't pass a bill seeking to study and limit federal mandates that come without funding.

"We couldn't get that out of committee," O'Connell said. "It's hard."

Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said that while the Legislature is committed to "doing anything we can," the reality, when it comes to disputes between state and federal governments, is a bit different.

"We could pass some law governing the shipment or any other methods regulating the nuclear waste, but it would probably get shot down as a Commerce Clause violation or a federal government exemption," said Buckley, an attorney with Clark County Legal Services.

The federal government has constitutional powers over states -- such as regulating interstate commerce -- that supersede the states' rights arguments of the 10th amendment.

The state is already bracing for a lawsuit from the Energy Department stemming from the recent decision by the state engineer not to extend water permits to the DOE at the mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"Certainly there are ways we can try to mess with them," said Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas. "But, most attempts have been pretty quickly shot down.

"Can we do something? Yes. Will it work? I don't know. That's quite an opponent."

Beers is even more skeptical of battling Washington, D.C. with a 10th amendment argument, "since they've lost that document back there."

Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said the Legislature must support the congressional delegation's efforts and pass resolutions.

"Some people say it's just paper, but it shows we're unified in our opposition," Titus said.

Titus also said she worries about moving beyond an anti-Yucca resolution by crafting bills regarding transportation routes or other related matters before the state exhausts its fight.

"You have to be careful that you don't get into that implied consent problem," Titus said.

During the 2001 Legislature, state Sen. Jon Porter, R-Boulder City, introduced a resolution urging Congress to find transportation routes outside of the Las Vegas Valley in the event Yucca Mountain was approved.

Another resolution, sponsored by state Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas, urged the Energy Department to transport waste on a rail line outside of the Las Vegas if the dump were approved.

Critics said both issues could give the federal government the impression Nevada was willing to accept the waste.

Most lawmakers also flinch at the mere mention of bargaining with the federal government for benefits, although O'Donnell and Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, have both proposed that in the past.

Buckley said the best thing the Legislature can do to help in the Yucca Mountain fight is to appropriate money to the Nevada Protection Fund -- an account established by Gov. Kenny Guinn for the state fight's legal and public relations expenses.

"It's an investment Nevada can't afford not to make," Buckley said.