Editorial: Don’t mess with … Nevada

Friday, Aug. 13, 2004 | 5:12 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

August 14 - 15, 2004

On Thursday President Bush campaigned in Las Vegas for two hours, close on the heels of a nearly two-day stay here earlier in the week by Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. Bush had a tough act to follow, because Kerry reaffirmed his previous commitment to stopping a nuclear waste dump from being built in Nevada if he is elected president. Bush also was on the defensive because Kerry reminded Las Vegans that in 2002 he voted against the Bush plan to bury 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste at Nevada's Yucca Mountain, a plan that Congress ultimately approved.

Bush obviously had a lot to address on Yucca Mountain, the most critical issue confronting our state. "This is a vital question, and we need to keep facts, not politics, at the center of the debate," Bush said. One of the most important facts is that Bush, during the 2000 presidential campaign, issued a statement saying he would use sound science, not politics, to decide whether to build a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. But even though there were nearly 300 unanswered scientific questions about the project, Bush still went ahead with his plan to bury man's deadliest waste in this state. It's clear that he broke his word to Nevadans and that he is the one playing politics with Yucca Mountain.

But the president, in an effort to deflect attention away from the reality that in 2000 he misled the residents of this state, tried to paint Kerry as the untrustworthy one on this issue. That's right, the same John Kerry who voted against Bush's nuclear waste burial plan apparently is the candidate we should be worried about. Bush said that Kerry hadn't always voted against the Yucca Mountain project. But, as Nevada's Democratic Sen. Harry Reid has pointed out, Kerry always has been there for Nevadans when we needed him.

On important votes involving Yucca Mountain, Kerry has sided with Nevadans. Besides his key 2002 vote against Bush's Yucca Mountain plan, in 2000 Kerry voted to sustain President Clinton's veto of legislation that would have made it easier to send nuclear waste to Nevada. Kerry has explained that as time has passed he learned more about the dangers of the Yucca Mountain project, which has made him a steadfast opponent.

It also was interesting on Thursday how Bush portrayed himself as listening to the concerns about the project raised by the state's top Republicans -- Gov. Kenny Guinn, Sen. John Ensign and Attorney General Brian Sandoval. "They made themselves very clear," Bush said. "And I said, well, I appreciate your opinion, but I will -- I'll tell you what I'll do. I will allow this process to be appealed to the courts and to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and I will stand by the decision of the courts and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission."

Bush "will allow" an appeal through the courts? Does he think he is king, not president? And it's not as if he could tell the Nuclear Regulatory Commission not to review the project, either. The law already says that the commission will decide the dump's fate when it reviews the Energy Department's application.

It's also troubling that the Republican governor and the GOP members of the congressional delegation are, as they put it, willing to "agree to disagree" with the president over Yucca Mountain. As if Yucca Mountain is just like any other issue. It also is disingenuous for these Republicans to suggest that Kerry, if elected, couldn't be counted on regarding Yucca Mountain. They know better, which is why it's so pathetic to see them making excuses for Bush.

What is becoming more apparent as the campaign gets closer to Election Day is that Kerry understands and shares the concerns of Nevadans regarding Yucca Mountain. The opposite is true of Bush, whose arrogance on this issue could cost him this state's votes in November. And, if the election is as close as the 2000 election, it could cost him the White House also.