Letter: Kerry cannot be trusted on Yucca Mountain dump

Monday, Aug. 16, 2004 | 8:53 a.m.

Regarding Yucca Mountain, John Kerry told a Sun reporter during a visit to Las Vegas that, "I've actually voted to stop it. I have voted against it." ("Kerry, in LV, pledges to fight Yucca dump," May 17, 2004).

Unfortunately, Kerry's selective memory only provided half of the story. The other half begins with his vote for the "Screw Nevada" bill in 1987. Without that critical piece of legislation, Yucca Mountain would be a mere sentence in a history book about a proposed project that never happened. Instead, Nevadans have spent 20 years fighting to keep deadly nuclear waste out of our backyard.

As if voting for the Screw Nevada bill wasn't enough, Kerry then voted over a 10-year period to waive environmental standards, increase funding and expedite the Yucca program. Quite ironic, considering that he told the Sun, in the above referenced article, that a president could stop the Yucca project by "halting federal money going to the repository or by forcing government branches such as the Environmental Protection Agency to acknowledge scientific studies that show the project might be unsafe."

Members of the press, who took Kerry at his word and apparently made no effort to independently verify the candidate's voting history, described Kerry's record on Yucca Mountain as "pure" and "consistent." We have now learned that John Kerry's record on Yucca Mountain reeks of do one thing, say another. The people of Nevada now know better than to take John Kerry at his word.

JOHN ENSIGN

Editor's note: The writer is a Republican who represents Nevada in the U.S. Senate.