Report: Nuke industry buying Yucca votes

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, May 14, 2002 | 11:03 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Another report by anti-Yucca Mountain activist group Public Citizen charges that campaign contributions from the nuclear energy industry are buying votes on the controversial nuclear waste project.

Companies with nuclear energy interests gave senators and Senate candidates -- including Nevada's two senators -- about $5 million since 1997, according to a Public Citizen report released Monday.

"Politicians bristle at the suggestion that their votes can be purchased by campaign contributions, but the money has an effect, or the industry wouldn't be handing out so much," Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook said.

Nuclear industry officials say such accusations are unfair, in part because the group's report lumped together companies that have a wide range of interests, and some with little interest in the nuclear industry.

For instance, Deloitte & Touche audits utility companies with nuclear interests, but it is a stretch to argue that the accounting firm gave money to buy votes in favor of Yucca Mountain, nuclear industry officials said. The firm gave senators and candidates about $500,000 since 1997.

"For a lot of these companies, Yucca Mountain is a very minor issue," said Mitch Singer, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's top lobbying group.

Only seven current senators have not received money from a nuclear-related company, according to Public Citizen.

Nevada's senators, long adamantly opposed to Yucca Mountain and careful not to take nuclear money, appear on the Public Citizen list.

Since 1997 companies with some sort of nuclear tie gave Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., $26,500; and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., $25,500, according to Public Citizen's analysis.

According to the report, Reid's nuclear-related money came from Deloitte & Touche; Enron; General Atomics; General Electric, which designs and services nuclear plants; Public Service Electric & Gas, owner or co-owner of three nuclear plants in New Jersey and Pennsylvania; Edison International; AFL-CIO Building & Construction; Troutman Sanders; and PG&E, which owns a nuclear plant in California.

Ensign got money from Deloitte & Touche; General Electric; Keyspan Energy; PG&E; Enron, which has a subsidiary with nuclear waste stored in Oregon; and Winston & Strawn, a law firm that has lobbied for the industry.

Ensign took $7,000 from Enron during the 1998 and 2000 campaigns, before the company was enmeshed in scandal, Ensign spokeswoman Traci Scott said. The money was spent and could not be given back, she said.

He also took $1,000 from Winston & Strawn in 1998, three years before the firm quit its contract to complete legal work on the Yucca Mountain project amid allegations it had ties to the nuclear industry. Nevada officials alleged that was a conflict of interest.

Ensign's campaign managers had tried diligently to filter out and reject any contributions that were tied to the nuclear industry, Scott said.

"There is no way to know every tentacle and relationship that these companies have," Scott said. "(The contributions) in no way impact his fight to kill Yucca Mountain."

Reid spokeswoman Tessa Hafen sounded a similar message, saying Reid was "above reproach" in his long-standing record of battling Yucca.

At issue is the federal proposal to permanently bury the nation's nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Nevada officials and environmental groups oppose the plan; the nuclear industry supports it. The House approved Yucca last week and the Senate is expected to vote by the end of July.

A fierce lobbying campaign is being waged on both sides, but Nevada officials have lamented that the nuclear industry is outspending them by millions of dollars for powerful lobbyists and advertising.