State prepares for case against Energy Department

Suzanne Struglinski

Thursday, June 17, 2004 | 9:02 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Oral arguments in yet another legal challenge brought by the state against the Energy Department may come by the end of the year, based on a schedule released by a federal appeals court Tuesday.

Nevada sued the Energy Department in March, claiming the department shortchanged the state $4 million this fiscal year for the oversight of the nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The state is spending the $1 million appropriated by Congress for 2004 to do additional research, pay lawyers and do general preparations to object to the license application the department aims to file with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December. However, the state can't do everything it wants to do with the limited budget. The state wants the $5 million it has received in past years and has requested $13 million for fiscal year 2005.

The department told the state earlier this month it would not get any additional money without approval from Congress.

But the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a schedule Tuesday that requires all the legal briefs for the case to be filed by Oct. 19.

Attorney Joe Egan, who represents Nevada on nuclear waste issues, said this is an accelerated schedule, which could get oral arguments started by the end of the year and a decision could come early next year. If the state wins, the department will have to make retroactive payments.

The state is still waiting for the outcome of six legal challenges against the project that it argued in the same court in January. Egan said even if the state won all those cases, this additional case would still be relevant as the state believes that the department owes it money.