Columnist Jeff German: Senators must keep up fight vs. Yucca

Friday, March 22, 2002 | 4:55 a.m.

THE FIGHT to kill the Yucca Mountain project in the Senate is just beginning, but already there's friction inside Team Nevada.

Late last week, as Nevada Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign were fine-tuning battle plans behind close doors, the spirit of partisanship reared its ugly head in the shadow of an awesome foe, the mighty nuclear power industry.

But amid the public bickering between Ensign, a freshman Republican, and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, Nevada's biggest ally on Capitol Hill, no one lost sight of the daunting task of winning over senators.

Ensign said his spat with Daschle, though it may have irked Reid, did not affect his close working relationship with the state's senior senator, a three-term Democrat.

"We're still on the same team when it comes to the issues," he said. "I'm going to try to get as many votes as I can."

That was good to hear because Team Nevada needs to stay focused to win this fight. The nuclear industry has spread millions around Capitol Hill in the past decade in its push to send 77,000 tons of deadly nuclear waste to Nevada.

By most accounts Reid, with Daschle's help, is expected to rally 36 Democrats to Nevada's side. With 51 votes needed to prevail on Yucca Mountain, that leaves 15 Republicans for Ensign.

Reid, the Senate's assistant majority leader, was well on his way to locking up his 36 by the end of the week, but Ensign was said to have only persuaded two Republicans, Sens. Ben Campbell of Colorado and Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island, both of whom were with the state in the past.

The Republicans, many of whom already have been bought off by the wealthy nuclear industry, have been a tough sell.

A top-secret list floated in Washington and Nevada last week by the anti-Yucca Mountain group, Alliance for Nuclear Accountability, showed only three Republicans on the fence. The 46 other GOP senators are reported to be siding with the nuclear industry.

The list, though it's being revised as the battle progresses, shows the difficult challenge facing Ensign.

Who could blame a nervous Ensign last week for going after Daschle and the Democrats to ease the pressure from his own party?

But as the tension remains in the coming weeks, Ensign can't allow himself to get sidetracked again. The stakes simply are too high. He'll have to stay glued to the task at hand -- bringing home Republicans to Team Nevada.

And in all likelihood Reid, one of the best at playing the Senate's inside game, will have to help him.

Last week, despite the dissension within the ranks, Nevada forces were committed to looking for votes wherever they could find them.

The Senate's 11 new members, nine Democrats and two Republicans, none of whom have ever weighed in on Yucca Mountain, were among those considered ripe for the picking.

A plan also surfaced to target senators in Oregon and Vermont, where environmental groups opposed to Yucca Mountain wield much influence. Television spots, bankrolled by Nevada's anti-nuclear waste protection fund, were being readied in those states.

All four senators there -- two Democrats, a Republican and an independent -- are considered swing votes, even though they sided with the nuclear power industry in the past.

Republican senators in other states with strong environmental groups, such as Maine, New Hampshire and neighboring Utah, also were being targeted. So were senators from both parties in Iowa, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Missouri, Arizona and New Mexico.

This week the battle continues, friction or no friction within Team Nevada.

There's no time to lose sight of the main goal -- winning votes.