Editorial: Strange way of defining friendship

Friday, Dec. 12, 2003 | 4:57 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION December 13 - 14, 2003

Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval is threatening to file more lawsuits against the Energy Department if federal funding isn't restored for state and local government oversight of the Yucca Mountain project. Last week Sandoval sent a letter to the Energy Department and the Office of Management and Budget, noting that the Nuclear Waste Policy Act requires that the federal government give Nevada money for scientific oversight of the project, which, if given a license, would result in the burial of 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste in Southern Nevada.

We agree with Sandoval and other Nevada officials that the federal government should live up to its obligations to provide our state with this funding. But, in light of how shabbily this state has been treated in the past by the federal government in singling out Nevada for the nation's nuclear waste dump -- despite plenty of evidence of just how dangerous it would be to ship and bury the waste here -- we can't say that we're surprised. What is amazing is just how little money we're talking about in the larger scheme of things. In Bush's proposed $591 million budget for the Yucca Mountain project, he eliminated $2.5 million provided to Nevada and $6 million to local governments devoted to research and other oversight activities of the proposed dump.

It was way back in February when Gov. Kenny Guinn sent a letter to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, objecting to the loss of funding. Sandoval mentioned in his recent letter to Abraham and Office of Management and Budget Director Joshua Bolten that Guinn still hadn't received a response more than nine months later. You'd think that the president, who referred to Guinn as his "close friend" during Bush's Las Vegas fund-raiser three weeks ago, would have been able to find some money for Nevada -- or at least drop him a line.

A large part of the problem is that Republican officials in this state, such as Guinn and Sandoval, are sending mixed signals to Bush, who last year recommended to Congress that the Yucca Mountain project go forward -- despite his 2000 campaign pledge that he would base his decision on "sound science." Sandoval, don't forget, is chairman of Bush's 2004 campaign in Nevada and Guinn is an honorary co-chairman of Bush's Nevada re-election effort. Guinn's partisan fealty also doesn't help matters when he tries to downplay the huge differences between him and Bush over Yucca Mountain. "As Ronald Reagan used to say, if people agree with you 80 percent of the time, they're your friend, not your enemy," Guinn has said. For Nevada's sake, Guinn needs to find a new friend.