O’Neil says Nevada should get compensation for Yucca

Erin Neff

Wednesday, May 8, 2002 | 8:57 a.m.

There's no suspense in today's House vote on Yucca Mountain for congressional candidate Pete O'Neil.

Nevada will lose big today, he says, and will also lose in July when the U.S. Senate takes up the matter.

"We're not pro-nuclear, we're not pro-Yucca Mountain," O'Neil said Tuesday on the steps of the George Federal Building downtown. "We're pro-Nevada and if our great state is being asked for this new burden, we should be compensated."

O'Neil believes there is still time to negotiate for goodies he highlighted on a chart illustrated with clip art of a hand grabbing a bag with a dollar sign and other symbols of the benefits he believes Nevada should get.

"Politicians in Nevada have been playing this losing game and have lost sight of the most important needs to our state -- the protection and compensation," O'Neil added.

Former Gov. Robert List, who now lobbies for the Nuclear Energy Institute, said he senses an "undercurrent of acceptance" in Nevada for the repository.

"There's been a change in moods particularly now that Nevadans see how outnumbered we are in Washington, D.C.," List said. "At every group I talk to, there's a growing sense that we should negotiate now."

O'Neil said Nevada could "reasonably" get $300 million a year from a fund of money utilities with nuclear power plants have collected from their ratepayers as fees for waste storage.

The money could be siphoned to the state's general fund beginning in 2003 for use any way the state deems fit, he said. O'Neil said he does not support a per-person payment because of Nevada's growth rates.

"That would give people another reason to move here," O'Neil said.

O'Neil said he thinks Nevada could also negotiate for:

But O'Neil's proposal fell flat in Washington, D.C. where Nevada's delegation is hoping today's House vote gives them more reason to hope for a successful outcome in the Senate.

"It's not only no, it's Hell no," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said of negotiating.

"That makes it harder to win in the Senate," said Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. "We have to be unified."

O'Neil's major-party opponents said they thought the Independent candidate's proposal was "ill-informed."

"The health and economic security of Nevadans is not for sale at any price," Democratic candidate Dario Herrera said. "We will win this fight.

"Even if we're not successful in the Senate we have a lot of legal ammunition to win this in court," he added.

Mike Slanker, campaign manager for Republican candidate Jon Porter, said negotiating is not an option.

"The second we start saying what-if, we're going to lose the Senate fight," Slanker said.

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