Editorial: Probe of top DOE official is warranted

Tuesday, June 4, 2002 | 8:55 a.m.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has joined other officials who are questioning the ethics of Undersecretary of Energy Robert Card, the man who is Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's top aide on the Yucca Mountain project. Reid, the Senate's second-highest ranking Democrat, is doing the right thing by calling for an Office of Government Ethics investigation to see if Card violated conflict-of-interest rules by helping out two nuclear waste cleanup companies where he once worked as an executive. Card did divest his holdings in the two companies -- CH2M Hill Co. and Kaiser-Hill Co. -- that have contracts with the Energy Department. But a Wall Street Journal story in February said that Card was involved in a number of decisions affecting CH2M Hill's contract to clean up nuclear waste in Hanford, Wash., including the settlement of fines that involved poor performance.

Even if you buy Card's explanation that he had no input on decisions affecting his former employers, no one would seriously believe that those Energy Department employees who dealt with Card's former employers wouldn't have felt some pressure to please their boss. Questions surrounding Card's ethics point to another issue as well, which is that many former industry executives are now in key policy-making positions in the Bush administration. Whether it's the endorsement of Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste dump or the push for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, it's evident that the Bush administration has taken a decidedly pro-industry bent with little regard to the consequences to the environment or public safety.