White House could soon join Yucca money fight

Benjamin Grove

Friday, July 26, 2002 | 10:01 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The White House soon may enter the fray over the Yucca Mountain budget as Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., maneuvers to slash money for the nuclear waste dump project.

Fresh from its triumph in Congress, the Energy Department, which manages Yucca, is quietly working with the White House's Office of Management and Budget to prepare a "supplemental" budget request to Congress, sources said.

The money -- it's not known exactly how much -- would be in addition to the $527 million President Bush requested in the proposed national budget he presented to Congress in February.

"We are working with the Department of Energy to determine what additional resources are necessary (for Yucca)," OMB spokeswoman Amy Call said.

Reid, who sits on the budget-setting Appropriations Committee, opposes additional money for Yucca.

"You know what kind of reception it would get from me, but we have 99 other senators to worry about," Reid said. "From me it would get the cold shoulder." The money would keep the long-delayed project on target to meet an ambitious goal of opening the dump by 2010.

The Energy Department needs the money for waste transportation planning and to prepare an application for a construction license, to be submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by December 2004.

OMB and Energy Department officials would not confirm how much more money the White House plans to request. It may be as much as $100 million, according to Environment and Energy Daily, a news service quoting industry sources.

"We are working through the budget process in a responsible manner to ensure that the project can move forward in a responsible manner," department spokesman Joe Davis said.

The extra money could prove crucial to the project next year because Reid, as chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that sets Yucca funding, this week arranged to cut the Bush budget request of $527 million to $336 million. Yucca advocates in Congress are vowing to restore the money, so House and Senate negotiators will hammer out a final budget agreement behind closed doors later this year.

Reid negotiates to cut the budget every year as part of an annual attempt to slow the project. But this year budget wrangling takes on a new urgency because Congress this month approved the project, propelling it forward into a licensing phase.

Officials at OMB point to page 411 of the appendix to the President's budget. The document plainly states that the White House would request additional money for Yucca if Congress officially approves the project, which it did.

The Energy Department needs the additional money for transportation planning and to "provide a long-term management and financing plan for the entire licensing and construction effort," the Bush budget says.

It's unclear whether lawmakers would approve the extra Yucca money this year. The Senate Appropriations Committee, among others, would have to approve it. Reid cannot single-handedly block budget requests, and the appropriations panel includes a number of Yucca advocates, including Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho.