Cost of state’s Yucca fight reaches $7.1 mil.

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, June 26, 2002 | 11:14 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Nevada's anti-Yucca Mountain effort, which features a pile of lawsuits and a broad-ranging media campaign, has cost nearly $7.1 million so far, according to state records.

Most of the money is committed to legal costs. About $2 million has been spent on a public relations war aimed at raising public awareness about Yucca Mountain, and ultimately persuading senators in an effort to derail the project.

The expenditures include lobbyists, TV and print advertisements, direct mailers and polling to find out what people know about Yucca Mountain and how they respond to certain anti-Yucca messages.

"What's really going on here is a political campaign," said Bob Loux, director of the state's Agency for Nuclear Projects, which manages the anti-Yucca fund.

The public relations campaign is not over yet, and state leaders vow to continue the assault -- and the spending -- until the final Senate vote on Yucca. The vote could come as early as this week, or the week of July 8, when Congress returns from an Independence Day holiday.

The Senate is expected to approve Yucca, despite the state's efforts. The vote will mark the final congressional hurdle for the federal plan to construct a national dump for the nation's most dangerous nuclear waste at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The state's anti-Yucca fund balances are not entirely up-to-date as revenue and expenses continue to dribble in and out. But a look at of some of the transactions thus far reveals where most of the money came from -- and where it went.

It also illuminates the inner workings of multi-pronged approach to influence senators in a long-shot effort to defeat Yucca.

"We are going to try to continue to try to defeat this legislation, not just because we believe it's bad for our state, but more importantly, we believe this legislation is really wrong-headed for the United States of America," Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said Tuesday on the Senate floor.

About $9 million has been raised to date for the "Nevada Protection Fund," and Nevada leaders are still asking for donations. Other donations are not filtered through the fund -- for example, the American Gaming Association is paying GOP lobbyist Ken Duberstein a reported $300,000 to lobby Republican senators.

Much of the fund's revenue so far has come from taxpayers. The Nevada Legislature has committed nearly $6 million; Clark County pitched in $2.5 million.

About $435,000 had been raised through mid-June from other sources, including businesses and private citizen donations.

Much of the money is obligated to expenses for two law firms -- $4.5 million for Egan & Associates; and $600,000 for San Francisco lawyer Antonio Rossman. Those figures are what the state owes the lawyers through the end of June 2003.

Egan is the lead firm on two lawsuits designed to derail Yucca, filed against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; and against the project's manager, the Energy Department. Rossman is the lead attorney on a lawsuit filed against the Environmental Protection Agency, and another suit against the Energy Department for failing to follow federal law in compiling an environmental impact statement.

The state fund also owes nearly $1.9 million to Las Vegas firm Brown & Partners Advertising and Public Relations, which oversees the state's public relations campaign.

A key part of the strategy centers on anti-Yucca Mountain television commercials, which have now run in Vermont, Utah, Wyoming and Iowa. More commercials are likely in other states, including Georgia and Missouri, sources said.

The 30-second spots encourage viewers to call or write their senators, urging them to oppose Yucca.

A trio of high-level staffers -- Sen. Harry Reid's chief of staff Susan McCue, Sen. John Ensign's chief of staff Scott Bensing, and Gov. Guinn's chief of staff Marybel Batjer -- make final determinations about where to run commercials, Loux said.

Advertising firm Greer Margolis, with offices in Washington and Los Angeles, produces the commercials, at varying costs. The Vermont advertisement, narrated by actor Ed Begley Jr., cost $40,000 to produce and $300,000 to buy the air time.

Viewers may be somewhat mislead about who pays for the spots -- a tagline at the end of the commercials informs them that the message was "sponsored" by listed public interest groups. The groups are used to lend the spots more credibility, but the groups are reimbursed at least in part by Nevada's anti-Yucca fund.

For example, the Vermont commercial credits three groups for sponsoring the ad: Physicians for Social Responsibility, Vermont chapter of the Sierra Club, and Vermont Public Interest Research Group.

But Yucca fund invoices show that the state fund reimbursed $70,000 to the Vermont Sierra Club. In another case, the state paid Physicians for Social Responsibility back $149,000 for air time it had purchased in Utah.

Nevada leaders are using a variety of other media to ultimately influence the Senate vote. Most of the money has been spent in 11 target states, where Nevada leaders hope to win support in the Senate, said Mark Brown of Brown & Partners.

"The strategy was a broad-based campaign that includes new technology, along with some tried and true methods -- and to do it on a very limited budget," Brown said.

A sampling of what the anti-Yucca money is buying:

In addition, Brown has contacted a number of newspapers to urge them to consider anti-Yucca editorials. In the last three weeks, Brown also sent out 5,000 "information kits" to newspapers, universities, public interest groups and chambers of commerce. Kits cost about $2 a piece.