Columnist Benjamin Grove: Amid pressure, Edwards likely to OK Yucca

Benjamin Grove

Friday, June 7, 2002 | 5:11 a.m.

THE SENATE ENERGY COMMITTEE stamped its seal of approval on Yucca Mountain last week, and the project now faces one final congressional test: a full Senate vote.

Many of the chamber's 100 members have openly declared their stance on the controversial nuclear waste plan, and it seems to have majority support. But as a Senate showdown nears, a number of lawmakers have kept relatively mum about how they intend to vote.

These quiet senators have been besieged by both the pro- and anti-Yucca camps. It's likely they are reluctant to state their position -- and anger one side or the other -- until they absolutely have to.

And a few are still genuinely conflicted. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., a 20-year friend of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., last week said two of the core values he uses to guide his conscience were in conflict when it comes to Yucca -- do what's right; and treat people as you expect them to treat you.

As a case study of the Yucca dilemma facing lawmakers, consider another senator: Democrat John Edwards of North Carolina.

On one side, environmental groups in the Carolinas have urged the first-term lawmaker to oppose the nuclear waste project. So has Reid, the powerful No. 2 Senate Democrat and Majority Whip.

Meanwhile North Carolina's two nuclear power companies for years have goaded Edwards to approve Yucca. So has the state's Democratic governor, Mike Easley. All 12 North Carolina members of the House -- five Democrats -- voted for Yucca.

Edwards, a bright, young former trial lawyer considered a possible presidential candidate, hasn't said much publicly about his Yucca stance. At a meeting in Durham two weeks ago, Edwards aide Brad Thompson told four anti-Yucca environmental groups and Durham city councilwoman Tamra Edwards (no relation) that the senator hasn't decided for sure yet how he will vote.

Activist Nora Wilson said Edwards' hedging has been frustrating.

"I felt like, as his constituents, we really deserve to know prior to the vote where he stands on this issue," said Wilson, a project organizer with North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network.

In fact, Edwards has decided. He will vote for Yucca, his top spokesman candidly told the Sun.

"It is a complex issue," Edwards' press secretary Mike Briggs said. "But he's looking out for the best interests of the state of North Carolina."

That means ship the state's waste to Nevada.

Edwards knows the statistics well. North Carolina has five nuclear reactors at three nuclear plant sites that produce one-third of the electricity generated in the state. State residents who use nuclear-generated electricity have paid roughly $790 million since 1983 into a fund to pay for Yucca -- and no waste has been moved so far, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute.

Edwards hates that waste piling up in cooling pools at plants in the North Carolina burgs of Cornelius, Southport, and near New Hill, where the Shearon Harris plant last year got permission from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to begin filling a third waste pool. It now has one of the largest waste-storage areas in the nation.

Edwards made an agreement with the plant's operator, Carolina Power & Light, several sources said. Edwards agreed to support Yucca if the company doesn't expand its temporary waste sites any more.

"Part of what we were telling him is that we wouldn't need the storage pool space if Yucca Mountain had been approved," CP&L spokesman Keith Poston said. "He understood why we were in this position."

CP&L, along with other industry lobbyists, has leaned heavily on Edwards to support Yucca, although the senator has taken no campaign money from nuclear power company political action committees.

"We have an ongoing dialogue with the senator. We're one of the largest companies in the state," Poston said. "He asks a lot of good questions and he has been very engaged on nuclear issues."

Meanwhile environmental groups are still fanning a flickering hope that Edwards might hear their pleas and change his mind.

Activist Louis Zeller stopped in four cities in the Carolinas last week, hauling a 20-foot fiberglass replica of the steel casks used to haul nuclear waste.

Zeller is ultimately traveling to Washington -- via the Midwest -- trying to spread the word that shipping waste cross-country to Nevada would be dangerous.

He spoke to me from a cell phone on the road, moments after convincing a curious bystander at a gas station to call Edwards.

"A lot of people on the highway are giving us the thumb's-up sign," said Zeller, a campaign coordinator for the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. "We have a very high opinion of Sen. Edwards as someone who stands up for the little guy, and I think he simply needs to hear from more people."

But even anti-Yucca activists can see the writing on the wall. The last time the Senate voted on a Yucca-related bill, in early 2000, Edwards voted for it.

At the time Edwards vowed to vote for Yucca when it came up for a final vote. He'll have his chance soon enough; the vote is expected before July 25.

To be sure, Yucca is a complex issue. Party politics factor into how senators vote. The nuclear industry's multimillion lobbying campaign is a factor. Environmentalists, with their congressional report cards, will be a factor.

But in the end, senators like John Edwards from waste states are likely to support Yucca for a simple reason: they think it's the best thing for their states. And those senators -- both Republicans and Democrats -- are going to be the reason that Nevada very well may lose its long war against Yucca in Congress.