Reid wants probe of Abraham Yucca aide

Benjamin Grove

Monday, June 3, 2002 | 11 a.m.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is asking for a conflict-of-interest investigation of Department of Energy Undersecretary Robert Card, who formerly worked for two companies that the DOE employs to lead nuclear waste clean-up projects.

Card is also Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's top aide on the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, and has publicly urged Congress to approve the dump. That has put him in Nevada's cross hairs.

"As a senator who is particularly concerned about the stewardship, integrity and objectivity of the nation's nuclear policy decision-making process, I am troubled by the unanswered ethical questions relating to a central figure in this important process, Undersecretary Robert Card," Reid wrote in a letter Friday to Government Ethics Director Amy Comstock.

Card worked for 20 years at CH2M Hill Co. In 1996, he became president and chief executive of Kaiser-Hill Co. The two firms have six contracts with the Energy Department.

Card and Abraham have denied that Card, who has recused himself from decisions involving the two companies, has a conflict of interest.

Card follows strict ethics rules, Energy spokesman Joe Davis said. Card sold his CH2M Hill stock, but received severance pay and initially kept some pension benefits. He has since backed out of the pension plan, Davis said.

Nevada officials have failed to make persuasive arguments that Yucca Mountain is a scientifically suitable site to bury waste, so Reid is making an effort to attack the department on another front, Davis said.

"This is a rehashing of an old and unfounded allegation and a desperate attempt to justify their last-minute character assassination in the hope that they can influence the vote somehow," Davis said today. The Senate is expected to vote on Yucca Mountain in July.

Davis noted that Energy Department lawyers said there is no merit to arguments against Card.

But Reid argued that Card is apparently violating federal law and President Bush's own official conduct standards, which state that government employees "shall endeavor to avoid any actions creating the appearance that they are violating applicable law or the ethical standards in applicable regulations."

Among its contracts, CH2M Hill is in charge of the massive cleanup at the Energy Department's Hanford, Wash. site, where nuclear waste is stored in underground tanks. Kaiser-Hill has a contract to clean up the closed Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado.

Card landed the Kaiser-Hill contract, which includes benefits for the company if certain deadlines were met. That creates a conflict of interest for Card now that he is the Energy Department's top manager of nuclear waste and environmental projects, Reid said.

Card was involved in decisions on fines levied against CH2M Hill on the Hanford project, Reid said in his letter, citing a February Wall Street Journal investigation.

Reid said the independent ethics probe is needed to determine if Card's ties to the companies compromise his position.

"If they determine that he has been doing things that are unethical, (the Energy Department) should get rid of him," Reid said today.

Controversy surrounding Card's connection to the two companies has dogged him since he took the Energy job a year ago. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., sent a letter to Abraham in January asking for documents relating to Card's involvement with the companies.

The Energy Department sent Berkley's office "reams" of documents that her overwhelmed staffers forwarded to the House Committee on Government Reform to investigate.

South Carolina officials also have criticized Card.

Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges in December suggested that Card was motivated to speed up the waste shipments of waste from Colorado to South Carolina so that Kaiser-Hill could meet deadlines and win financial bonuses in its contract. Hodges asked Abraham to remove Card from the plan to ship waste to South Carolina.