Where I Stand — Brian Greenspun: Fight Yucca decision

Friday, Jan. 11, 2002 | 4:25 a.m.

HERE'S THE BAD NEWS, Nevada.

You are all a bunch of left-wingers whose political grandstanding against the high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain has prevented millions of nuclear power users across the country from cashing in on their hard-earned investment. So sayeth the speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert.

There are many absurdities attached to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's not unexpected announcement that he is recommending Yucca Mountain to President George W. Bush as the nation's only nuclear garbage dump. Hastert's statement decrying Nevada's mothers and fathers for their staunch opposition to the dump has to rank near the top for its arrogance as well as its idiocy.

But whether the people of Nevada, most of whom voted for and, therefore, elected George W. Bush as the president of the United States, are liberal, conservative, moderate or are any other member of the vast American political spectrum, the fact remains that we are not anxious to be put upon by the federal government. And we especially aren't too happy about a man like Hastert, who has taken hundreds and thousands of our gambling industry's dollars out of here, equating the health and safety of our children and grandchildren with the long-suffering investors who have been using cheap nuclear power to light up their lives.

Hastert's comment, however, is more telling in what it implies than what it actually says, for buried between his lines is the bias that has forever separated our part of America from his and everyone else in Washington who just doesn't get the fact that people live here.

We are expendable. No matter how you slice, dice and otherwise parse the words of Abraham, Hastert and the rest of the crowd that has moved hellbent for leather to bury in our desert the deadliest poison known to man, the fact remains that Nevadans aren't worth as much as other Americans, nor are we as worthy.

There is no other explanation for the way this state and our citizens have been treated ever since the Screw Nevada bill was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. That's when science was pushed aside for the expediency of politics and Nevada got the nod because nobody lived here and, more importantly, nobody even made a dent on the electoral map.

And now that Abraham has made the recommendation to the president, it is just a matter of time before the trucks and trains start rolling toward Nevada, which will be the beginning of the end of life as we have known it in the Entertainment Capital of the World. Unless ...

Unless our governor, Kenny Guinn, and our junior U.S. senator, John Ensign, and our resident political mover and shaker, Sig Rogich, step up to the plate and do what their Republican predecessor, Paul Laxalt, either refused or could not do almost 20 years ago.

When the Congress decided to put the screws to Nevada and bury us under the nation's nuclear waste, Laxalt was the one man who could have put a stop to the mindlessness. He was President Reagan's best friend. He could have asked him to veto the bill. He didn't do it or, at least, he didn't do it very effectively. We are now about to live with the consequences of that inaction.

By contrast, when President Bill Clinton promised Nevadans and his friend, former Gov. Bob Miller, that good science and not bad politics would drive any decision regarding Yucca Mountain, he kept his word. He threatened to veto any attempt to build a temporary dump in our state and he actually vetoed Congress' attempt to do just that. He did it for two very good reasons: He believed that science should determine the answer to the country's nuclear waste problem and he knew that Nevadans played a big part in making him president. For eight years under Clinton, Nevadans could sleep easy knowing that a nuclear nightmare was not heading their way.

Now it is our new president's turn. If Nevadans helped elect Clinton, there is no doubt that, but for this state, there would be no President George W. Bush. He owes us his gratitude and he owes us the quality of his word that science and not politics would determine our fate.

Nevadans were assured by Guinn, Ensign, et al. that Gov. Bush would treat us right. Now is the time for him to do just that. It is also the time for the president to show Nevadans that our elected leaders weren't blowing smoke when they told us that a Bush presidency was in our best interests.

President Bush doesn't have to accept Abraham's thoughtless recommendation -- he can say no. He can also send the DOE back to the drawing board or do a number of other things to deal with nuclear waste. But he won't do any of that unless our governor and our junior senator are pounding on his desk demanding that he protect us.

And, if they don't do that, if they don't go down fighting this president with everything they've got, then I believe the people of this state will hold them, and every member of the president's political party, accountable for the lies.

We are not a bunch of left-wingers living in the desert. We are parents and children, we are working people and retirees, we are young and old and we are Democrats and Republicans. Most of all, though, we are Americans and we don't deserve nor do we expect to be treated this way by our leaders.

Make the call, Gov. Guinn. Do your thing, Sen. Ensign. Come on, Sig, work some magic. Time is running out. For us and for you.

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