Editorial: What money can’t buy

Monday, April 12, 2004 | 8:52 a.m.

Last week the Nevada Legislature's Interim Finance Committee approved spending $2 million for the state's legal defense to prevent a proposed nuclear waste dump from being built in Southern Nevada. But the committee's chairman, Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, said that while he doesn't want a dump built, he questioned whether the state shouldn't have a backup plan to get compensation from the federal government in case the state's opposition isn't successful.

It seems about every other year a state official pops up to wonder if the state should consider seeking money from the federal government in exchange for the dump, but these musings quickly die. It's easy to see why they don't go anywhere. First, the state shouldn't send any signal that it is giving up -- and that's exactly what negotiating for benefits would constitute. Any concession would embolden the federal government to keep going forward with this dangerous dump that would threaten the safety of Nevadans and endanger the environment. Second, you have to be delusional to believe the federal government, which already has budget deficits in the trillions of dollars, will suddenly let federal funds flow into Nevada.

The federal government, which wants to bury 77,000 tons of nuclear waste just 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is a powerful foe. That is why it's so important that Nevada state government do everything it can to stop the dump from happening, including funding legal challenges. Any kind of concession is out of the question. Period.