Friday, May 10, 2002 | 4:26 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Debate on the Yucca Mountain project has always been marked by moments of high drama, and the historic House vote last week did not disappoint.
Lawmakers voted to approve the nuclear waste dump and send it to the Senate with a 306-117 vote. Three and a half hours of debate were spiced with strange, poignant and a few amusing moments.
Highlights from the House floor:
Showdown. No one knew exactly when lawmakers would turn their attention to the Yucca debate on Wednesday. It was entirely appropriate, after 15 years of study and intense debate about Yucca Mountain, that the final shootout in the House began when Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., brought the matter to floor at exactly 12 p.m. -- high noon.
Scurrilous (skur' a les), adj., Vulgar, abrasive. In the first few minutes of debate, Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., argued that the House should toss out the Yucca resolution because the project would create unfunded mandates for state and local governments along waste transportation routes.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, a tireless advocate for the Yucca project, said he was "shocked -- shocked and amazed" that Gibbons would suggest that Barton would push a resolution with unfunded mandates.
"This is far from being an unfunded mandate. This is the most overfunded, unmet, unobligated, unconstructed thing that we could have ever done in federal government." Barton urged the House to throw out Gibbons' "scurrilous point of order."
Those words raised Gibbons' hackles and he cornered Barton a few minutes later. Barton, known for his low-key wit, told Gibbons he was merely being playful with his word choices, the two men said later. Gibbons later said people might think Barton was insulting him. "(Barton) said, 'My God, that's not what I intended. I'll get up there and apologize,' " Gibbons said later. "And he did."
A nuclear flush. Barton had praised Gibbons during debate for valiantly fighting for Nevada. Gibbons was simply overwhelmed, Barton said later. "In Las Vegas poker terms, his highest card was a two or a three, and we had a full house," Barton said.
"He just didn't have a hand." Barton added, "Contrary to popular belief we love Nevada." Barton said he goes to Las Vegas three or four times a year, joking, "I do what I can to contribute to the local economy."
Anyone home? At one point, Gibbons seemed to be making a desperate plea to his GOP friends: "Where are my colleagues who are advocates of states' rights? Of local control? Of fiscal discipline?" In the end, just 13 Republicans voted against Yucca Mountain; 203 voted in favor.
Berkley mad. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., joined Gibbons in his disgust with Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., who toted a giant poster of the Nevada license plate featuring a nuclear mushroom cloud to the floor for his speech.
"The state of Nevada has a tremendous nuclear legacy, as identified by this recently approved Nevada state license plate," Shimkus said. "The state of Nevada can again fulfill their nuclear legacy and continue to aid this nation and our citizens by safely storing high-level nuclear waste for our country."
Gibbons later said Shimkus' comments were in poor taste, given that Nevadans died testing nuclear bombs in service to the nation.
Berkley said the state had been left with a legacy of cancer, no thanks to the federal government. She said Nevadans don't trust government officials on Yucca precisely because they lied about the bomb tests.
"Those Nevada Test Site workers, if they are not dead, they are dying," Berkley said during debate. "Those people that observed those tests and watched as they ate their bologna sandwiches, they are dying, too. Those downwinders in Utah and in Nevada who happened to be caught living downwind of these atomic tests, they are all dead, too."
Berkley mad again. Berkley fumed later when Barton insisted there was no proven link between nuclear bomb tests and cancer, arguing "not one scientific study shows that there is any greater incidence of cancer in Nevada than anywhere else in this country. That may be an anecdotal tale, but there is no scientific validity to it."
Furious, Berkley tried to reclaim the microphone, but Barton owned the debate time. Berkley noted later that the Energy Department in 2000 acknowledged workers died from cancers they got from working at the Test Site -- an extraordinary admission -- and Congress approved landmark legislation to compensate them. "I was astounded by (Barton's) lack of knowledge regarding the plight of Nevada Test Site workers," Berkley said.
The downwinder. One Nevada ally, Rep. James Matheson, D-Utah, delivered a passionate, personal speech about his own experience with downwinders.
"On Oct. 7, 1990, my father died at age 61 from a cancer called multiple myeloma," Matheson said. "Thousands of citizens throughout the West continue to get sick and die from radiation exposure-caused illnesses. We saw a picture of a license plate talking about the nuclear legacy of Nevada. That is a legacy of which we should be ashamed."
What a dump. Shimkus called Yucca "a barren, windswept desert ridge 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas." Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich.: "It is close, if not contiguous, to where we have done nuclear testing for decades. It will never be a vacation spot."
You said a mouthful. Few congressmen actually speak a more government-ese language than Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., a leading Yucca supporter. Here's one sentence (deep breath): "No site will ever be found to be perfect for the disposal of high-level nuclear waste, but I am persuaded that the studies which have already been conducted and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission review that is still to come provides sufficient assurances that the appropriate nature of the Yucca Mountain site has been established and will justify approval of the legislation now before us." In other words: "Yucca seems good enough to me."
The Dario Effect. How much influence did Clark County Commissioner and House candidate Dario Herrera have in lobbying two dozen Democratic lawmakers? Consider Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-Texas, one of many lawmakers who had wrestled with their decision in the face of conflicting interests.
The electric utility in Gonzalez' district, City Public Service, relies on a nearby nuclear plant for 20 percent of the electricity it provides consumers. The industry hounded him to support Yucca; the utility's general manager had just sent him a letter urging him again to vote "aye."
But Berkley had bent Gonzalez' ear, too, and made good arguments that the site simply isn't safe, he said. As he was leaving his office to vote, Gonzalez already planned to vote against Yucca.
But Herrera made his decision easier, Gonzalez said. Gonzalez, eager to see a fellow Hispanic Democrat elected to Congress, agreed to chat with Herrera in his office just before the vote. Herrera argued the county's case. "He really made me feel comfortable that I was doing the right thing," Gonzalez said. "I just kept thinking, 'What if this were my district?' "
The congressman, not the comedian. What possessed 12 Republicans to buck their president, House leadership and the nuclear power industry? Each has his or her reasons. Gibbons shares a congressional district border with Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif.
But Lewis opposed Yucca mostly because county officials in San Bernardino and Inyo counties leaned on him, spokesman Jim Specht said. Local officials are concerned about waste transportation accidents, he said. "Neither of those counties is prepared to deal with that," Specht said.
Nevada's struggle with Yucca now turns to the Senate and the federal courts.
"This was not the end," Gibbons said in one of a flood of press releases the Nevada delegation released last week. "True to our battle born heritage, Nevada will continue to fight."
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