68% support special session

Erin Neff

Wednesday, March 27, 2002 | 4:27 a.m.

Southern Nevada residents overwhelmingly support funding last-ditch efforts to block Yucca Mountain from becoming the nation's nuclear waste repository, according to a poll commissioned by the Las Vegas Sun.

A telephone survey of 435 Clark County residents found 68 percent in support of a special session of the Legislature to appropriate $10 million to aid in the state's anti-Yucca Mountain lobbying efforts. The survey found 26 percent against a special session and 6 percent uncommitted.

The survey, conducted Tuesday by UNLV's Cannon Center for Survey Research, has a 5 percent margin of error.

Those polled were asked the following question: Sens. (John) Ensign and (Harry) Reid have asked Gov. (Kenny) Guinn to call a special session of the Nevada Legislature. The reason for the session would be to appropriate $10 million to fight having nuclear waste buried at Yucca Mountain. Do you think Gov. Guinn should call such a session?

"The population was, number one, both very aware of Yucca Mountain and very aware that this question is before the governor right now," said Pam Gallion, survey manager.

People surveyed were asked if they thought the governor should call a special session to spend $10 million to fight the proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain.

Some respondents who said Guinn should call a special session said the state should fight the proposed dump "at any cost," Gallion said.

Some of those opposed to a session volunteered to poll takers that they did not know where the state would get the money to fund the fight. "One said he thought that we should have a lottery to do this," Gallion said.

Gallion said past polls with Yucca Mountain questions have also shown that residents both know the issue and are overwhelmingly opposed to the dump.

"Respondents are always highly aware of the issue," Gallion said. "The responses to this survey aren't a surprise."

Gallion noted that the survey found that support for a special session was stronger among younger people.

Eighty-five percent of respondents from 26 to 35 years old said they support a special session, and 70 percent of respondents from 36 to 55 years old said they would support the special session.

Support dropped off among older respondents. Sixty-five percent of those 56 to 65 years old who responded said they would support the special session, followed by 61 percent of those 66 years old or older.

The poll came at the same time as a survey by the Sun of the 63-member state Legislature, which found opposition for a special session in the state Senate and a bare majority of support for one in the Assembly.

A number of lawmakers told the Sun they did not believe the state had the money for such efforts, and were unconvinced the money could make any difference.

Guinn is expected to veto President George Bush's approval of Yucca Mountain sometime in the next three weeks, sending the matter to the U.S. Congress.

Nevada hopes to lobby support from a majority in the U.S. Senate to sustain Guinn's veto. The House of Representatives is expected to override the veto.

Reid and Ensign said additional money is needed to fund television ads and grassroots campaigns in states where senators might be persuaded to join Nevada's position because of concerns about the transportation of high-level nuclear waste through their districts en route to Yucca Mountain.

Guinn said he will decide this week whether to call a special session.