Editorial: Look in the mirror for answer

Thursday, Feb. 27, 2003 | 9:55 a.m.

Energy Department Secretary Spencer Abraham is upset over budget cuts to the Yucca Mountain project. He says they will make it "extremely difficult" for the department to submit by next year a license application to build a nuclear waste dump in Nevada. Congress whittled down the department's proposed $591 million budget for Yucca Mountain to $460 million for the current fiscal year. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who sits on the Appropriations Committee, was principally responsible for the reduction this time and in previous years when cuts have been made.

Despite Abraham's angst, the Yucca Mountain budget should be reined in because of mismanagement and incompetence. For that matter, if so many members of Congress didn't want nuclear waste out of their states, this project would have been killed outright years ago based on scientific findings -- downplayed or ignored by the Energy Department -- that show how dangerous it is to ship nuclear waste cross-country and bury it in Nevada. That is also why it would be outrageous if Congress went along with the Energy Department's recommendation to allow Yucca Mountain supporters in Congress to restore any cuts to the project's budget without having to approve offsetting cuts in other energy projects. Reid has vowed to defeat such a move, and we hope he is successful.

Part of the Energy Department's failing all along has been its rush to judgment on Yucca Mountain even though there never has been enough proof to demonstrate that it would be safe. That is why it's not too surprising to see that same department now want to resort to questionable budgetary practices to accelerate the building of a nuclear waste dump.