NEI is biggest foe in Yucca battle

Benjamin Grove

Friday, March 1, 2002 | 4:56 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

WASHINGTON -- Angelina Howard, one of the nuclear industry's top Capitol Hill lobbyists, was speaking at a conference in London late last year when an anti-nuclear activist threw her a question:

Would you live in Las Vegas if the government buries highly radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain?

"I said, 'Well, no, I'm not sure I would live in Las Vegas,' " recalled Howard, who commutes to her downtown Washington job from a sleepy community outside the Beltway. " 'Las Vegas is a bustling, busy place, and I don't much like the big city. But I would live in Amargosa Valley, which is a lot closer to Yucca Mountain.' "

She smiles after telling the story. "And that," she says, "was an honest answer."

Howard, Nuclear Energy Institute executive vice president, is one of a platoon of industry-backed lobbyists answering lawmakers' questions about Yucca Mountain and trying to secure Congress' support for the proposed nuclear waste dump.

Nevada lawmakers, environmentalists and other anti-Yucca players view the institute as their most powerful foe in the battle to delay and ultimately kill the repository in Nevada.

NEI relentlessly lobbies lawmakers, hands them campaign money and pays their travel expenses to destinations all over the world, critics say.

As the most vocal supporter of Yucca Mountain, the institute has a budget of about $28 million, a staff of 130 and a handful of lobbying firms on its payroll.

"The nuclear power industry has very deep pockets and they are mounting a full-court press," said Richard Bryan, a former Nevada governor and U.S.senator who battled 8-year-old NEI and its predecessors for years. "(It is) extremely powerful, with unlimited amounts of money to retain lobbyists and initiate PR campaigns."

This year its political power takes on new meaning because of the critical vote on Yucca in Congress. Nevada is preparing to file an official objection to President Bush's endorsement of Yucca, and Congress then will vote on the state's objection.

Bob Shaeffer, spokesman for Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, an anti-Yucca group, called NEI's financial resources "immense."

"How well that translates into votes, we'll see," he said. "But they are a serious player and they've been at it for years."

NEI's influence has grown with a Republican in the White House, critics say. Nuclear industry officials, who overwhelmingly backed Bush for president, were elated when he and Vice President Dick Cheney were elected.

When the administration's proposed energy strategy was released in May, it endorsed expanded nuclear power, tax credits for nuclear plants and a completed Yucca Mountain.

Cheney said nuclear power was a "very important part" of U.S. energy policy. NEI President Joe Colvin said Cheney's support was "an exhilarating rallying point for the industry when Americans are looking for energy solutions."

With the words "nuclear renaissance" on the lips of energy officials, NEI organized a conference -- also in May -- where industry leaders announced an ambitious plan to build 50 nuclear plants in America by 2020, even though no new plants have been commissioned since the 1970s.

But the future of nuclear energy is tied to Yucca Mountain, energy officials say. And that makes lobbying on the issue a high-stakes game.

"It's very important to have available, affordable, safe sources of energy, and nuclear plays a big part of that," Howard said. "To do that, we must manage our byproducts, just as they do in any other industry. Nuclear needs to continue to be a part of the energy mix. There is no way to produce enough energy for the nation without nuclear.

"Nuclear energy has proven its success and will continue to prove its success."

To tout that message NEI officials use a variety of strategies.

Lobbying

As the industry's top trade group, NEI synchronizes the lobbying efforts of 42 nuclear utility companies that own the nation's 103 nuclear reactors. Some of those companies send their own pro-Yucca lobbyists to Washington.

NEI adds its own lobbyists -- it wouldn't say how many -- and will hire outside lobbying firms. Last year, it hired eight lobbying groups, although not all were active on Yucca, according to congressional records.

The net effect of this small army: Within the next few months, at least one or more lobbyists from the NEI or coordinated by it will meet with every lawmaker -- or at least their top aides -- in the 535-member Congress, Howard said.

As out-manned environmental lobbyists try to catch up, NEI already is blanketing Capitol Hill with a carefully orchestrated pro-Yucca lobbying campaign.

"NEI has big guns," said Anna Aurilio, legislative director for Public Interest Research Group. "It will be a very, very tough fight."

Many Yucca watchers say lobbyists on both sides are intently focused on where the vote could be close: the Senate. Attention has fallen particularly on the Senate's 11 newest members -- minus John Ensign, R-Nev., who will vote against the project. But NEI officials will not say which senators they are targeting and decline to give details about lobbying strategy.

After the Sun interviewed Howard, NEI Vice President John Kane sent out an e-mail to several hundred members warning them that a Sun reporter was seeking lobbyists for this story.

"I strongly recommend that you do not talk to him or any press on a 'so-called' industry strategy," Kane cautioned in the e-mail obtained by the Sun.

A few offered some insights. Bill Carney, who has been a contracted lobbyist for NEI for 15 years, plans to talk to between 100 and 200 House members and roughly 24 senators or aides. For face-to-face meetings, Carney likes to bring along executives from nuclear utilities in the lawmakers' districts.

"This issue really illuminates (former House Speaker) Tip O'Neil's cardinal rule: 'All politics is local.' And you use the local people to talk to the congressman."

The local angle will be important for the nuclear industry. Thirty-four states have nuclear plants.

Bryan, who's heading the Washington office of a state law firm, said that among NEI's most effective strategies is encouraging governors to pressure lawmakers. Governors don't have to deal with the federal implications of the energy policy and can focus on what's good for the state, which, for most states, is getting rid of nuclear waste.

Howard said NEI officials often review the history of the issue when they meet with lawmakers. The lobbyists stress that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the nation's Nuclear Waste Policy Act, in which Congress made a legal promise to construct a permanent waste dump.

Lawmakers also promised to haul waste away from nuclear plants by 1998. That date passed, and now the government faces staggering lawsuits brought by nuclear utilities, NEI officials argue.

"It is important that people understand that it wasn't like it was last year when we decided to put the thing in Nevada," Howard said.

Transportation

The nuclear industry will have to overcome what Yucca critics say is among their strongest arguments: Transporting nuclear waste to Nevada would be dangerous.

Opponents have rebutted the industry's argument that nuclear waste transportation has been proven safe, and they are trying to lobby congressional members from the 43 states on likely waste transportation routes.

Anti-Yucca forces say transporting waste risks accidents and terrorist attacks. Those arguments are unfair fear-mongering, NEI officials say.

"What are we trying to do, just scare people to stop (Yucca) -- or provide for the nation's energy?" Howard asked. "Everybody has their agendas."

NEI has sent nine-minute videotapes to local TV stations and chambers of commerce nationwide that show nuclear waste shipping containers being dropped, burned and hit by a train -- all without cracking.

The campaign, called "An American Success Story: The Safe Shipment of Used Nuclear Fuel," has a simple message: It is safe to ship nuclear waste cross-country to Nevada.

Carney said he and other lobbyists will hammer home the argument that waste transportation is safe, he said.

Campaign money

To make sure its message is heard, NEI also gives politicians money. Common Cause, the Washington group that lobbies against big-money special interests in Congress, said NEI was an influential voice on Capitol Hill, although it is not among the top campaign contributors.

"(It seems) to be a major player in terms of lobbying," Common Cause senior policy analyst Celia Wexler said. "(It has) some very heavy hitters as members. They know how to use their money in Washington and get their message heard."

Common Cause said NEI gave about $643,000 in soft money to candidates between 1994, when it formed, and June. That does not rank it among the top soft-money contributors. No. 11 Enron, for example, gave more than $2 million to candidates in the 2000 election cycle alone, Common Cause said.

NEI in the 1999-2000 election cycle gave roughly $160,000 to congressional candidates, about 70 percent to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which also tracks campaign money. NEI has given nearly $43,000 so far for the 2002 election, according to the center.

Recipients include the leading Yucca advocates in Congress, including Sens. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska, Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

Nevada officials and environmental activists often decry the NEI donations.

"The nuclear industry has been purchasing votes in Congress for as long as the project has existed," Rep. Shelly Berkley, D-Nev., said in a recent interview. "The nuclear industry is spending millions of dollars to their well-paid lobbyists to do their dirty work. Instead of plying our colleagues with money, we'll be plying them with facts."

Free trips

NEI officials also serve up facts -- on NEI-sponsored trips to Yucca Mountain and various nuclear sites throughout the world. In 2001 NEI spent more than $242,000 on flights, meals and hotels for 74 House and Senate aides -- plus a few of the lawmakers themselves accompanied by spouses -- according to a Sun analysis of congressional records.

Forty-five trips spirited lawmakers and aides to Las Vegas for Yucca Mountain tours at a cost of nearly $44,000. NEI officials have said the trips are two-day, all-business affairs.

Trips for lawmakers paid by special interests are legal and common, but critics say they unfairly buy NEI a valuable commodity: time with key decision-makers. NEI officials say the trips give lawmakers valuable first-hand information.

Among the trip-takers last year were two top Hastert staffers. The aides took a $340 helicopter ride from Las Vegas to Yucca instead of the typical $25 bus ride most aides take. "We hope that you will continue to consider NEI as a resource to you in your work on energy policy," NEI wrote in a follow-up note to Hastert aide John McGovern.

NEI also paid for a handful of lawmakers and aides to travel overseas for tours of nuclear power plants, uranium processing centers and other nuclear facilities in France, the United Kingdom and Japan.

In less exotic ways, NEI is also organizing everything from courtroom fights to press conferences in support of Yucca Mountain. As Nevada officials attempt to tie up the project in court, NEI has filed to be a party in one lawsuit that challenges Energy Department rules. NEI officials want to defend in court the rules they consider favorable.

And as anti-Yucca grass-roots groups muster in Washington, NEI is energizing a diverse coalition of organizations that support Yucca -- an effort to widen its net of influence in Congress.

Last week NEI held a press conference that featured an assortment of groups including the African-American Environmentalist Association, Citizens Against Government Waste and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which has 15,000 members nationwide who work in the nuclear industry.

As the Yucca vote in Congress nears, NEI will also buy advertisements in the Washington Post and other publications widely circulated on Capitol Hill, officials said.

NEI has purchased ad space for other issues and targets lawmakers in Washington publications.

When lawmakers returned to Congresss in January for this year's session, NEI bought several quarter-page advertisements in the front section of the Post featuring three gun-toting nuclear power plant security officers. The ad's message was aimed directly at lawmakers: Guards at nuclear plants are already highly trained and armed -- so don't federalize nuclear plant security, a proposal pitched by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Lobbying groups such as NEI have long been an important part of lawmaking. While groups such as Common Cause may decry their increasing influence, lobby groups of widely varying size and scope defend their constitutional right to advocate issues.

Bryan hinted that in the end, while lobby groups such as NEI are formidable, they can be beatable.

"The fact that the nuclear industry would retain high-profile people such as former Gov. Bob List belies the argument that they make to the public that (Yucca) is inevitable," Bryan said. "If it's inevitable, why are they mobilizing all these forces? The answer is that they're scared."

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