Editorial: Real friend to Nevada on Yucca

Thursday, Aug. 12, 2004 | 9:08 a.m.

President Bush's re-election campaign, supported by top Republican officials in Nevada, keeps trying to sully Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's strong record of opposition to the Yucca Mountain project. The Republican efforts are really pathetic because Kerry, unlike Bush, has been there for the residents of this state. In the most telling example of Kerry's leadership, in 2002 he voted against Bush's plan to send 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste to Nevada. It doesn't take a genius to figure out which candidate is better for Nevadans on the biggest issue facing this state.

On his two-day campaign swing in Nevada this week, Kerry added to his anti-Yucca Mountain bona fides, declaring on Tuesday, "When I'm president of the United States, I'll tell you (this) about Yucca Mountain: Not on my watch." For those residents who still might be undecided, Kerry added this sweetener to the mix: He pledged to veto any legislation that would change the radiation standards at Yucca Mountain. This is a huge development because recently a federal appeals court said the Environmental Protection Agency didn't follow the law when establishing the radiation standards. Building a dump that would meet stringent safety standards as required by law would be impossible, a situation that should result in the project's demise.

Congress could get around the court's decision, however, by passing new legislation that would undo the tough standards in the existing law, thereby making the radiation standards easy to meet and resulting in the dump being built. It's an incredibly important reason why it's essential to have a president willing to wield his veto pen against any efforts to weaken the radiation standards -- and just why the stakes in this year's presidential election are so high for Nevadans.