Monday, June 21, 2004 | 11:21 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- Nuclear power users may be asked to pay even more money to fund the Yucca Mountain dumpsite to help fill a gap created by budget policy.
The Wall Street Journal reported today that Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., will ask for a one-year, 60-percent increase on fees paid by nuclear ratepayers to fund the nuclear waste storage site at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
This is the latest proposal to help make sure the department can keep the project on track to open in 2010 by getting the money it needs.
The Energy Department faces a budget crunch this year since its $880 million request for the project may only be filled if Congress approves a policy change. The House has acted on the change, but Yucca Mountain critics and supporters have said the additional money is unlikely to move in the Senate based on the objections of Nevada senators.
Domenici heads the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Committee, on which Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is the top Democrat. Reid works to cut the project's budget every year and strongly opposes any policy change that would allow the department to get money for the project without congressional oversight.
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., kept a proposal out of the Senate budget resolution that would have allowed the department to tap into more money without having the Yucca project compete with other federal programs.
The Nuclear Energy Institute is still trying to get details on Domenici's proposal but spokesman Mitch Singer said today that the group, which represents the nuclear power industry, does not feel ratepayers should have to pay more money on top of the $15 billion sitting in the account earmarked to fund the project.
Brian O'Connell, nuclear waste program office director for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, which supports the Yucca project, said he had "more questions than answers" on Domenici's proposal. He said a 60 percent increase would be an additional $1.2 billion on top of the $750 million ratepayers will put toward the project this year.
It was unclear it how Domenici's proposal would go around budget rules and allow the money from the increase to go directly to the project. Calls to Domenici's office were not returned.
"This proposed increase is just the latest in a series of budget gimmicks designed to pour more money into the fiscal black hole that is Yucca Mountain," said Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., in a statement. "The nuclear industry could care less how much the Domenici proposal would cost the average ratepayer, as long as it means they can continue to generate nuclear waste and rake in the profits. "The Bush Administration and Republicans leaders in both the Senate and the House have made it clear the will go to any lengths to see that Yucca Mountain is built, regardless of the health impacts it would have on families in Nevada or the terrorist threat that nuclear waste shipments would unleash."
Some House Democrats that support the Yucca project including Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., want the department to be able to tap into all $15 billion in waste funds, not just the $750 million put in every year.
"It is a mistake to rob nuclear power customers so they can pay for the problems of nuclear power companies," Rep. Jon Porter, R- Nev., said. "We must not spend anymore money on Yucca until all the safety concerns are addressed, including concerns of transporting 77,000 tons of nuclear waste across the nation."
Meanwhile, the House Energy and Commerce Committee plans on Thursday to take up a bill offered by Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, that would provide the Yucca Mountain project with $750 million a year in each of the next five years.
The committee will meet just a day before the House votes on the Energy and Water Development spending bill, which contains the $131 million Yucca budget Barton's bill would try to increase. The spending bill is scheduled for Friday, according to House Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman David Hobson's, R-Ohio office.
If the Barton bill gets approved Thursday, it could be brought up as an amendment to the spending bill on Friday. Barton's aides said this morning that the chairman is still weighing his options.
Barton's bill would change budget policy so Congress could get the $750 million each year from a pool of money funded directly by a surcharge on nuclear power, so the project would not have to compete with other programs for federal money and the money in the pool could not be used for anything other than the Yucca project.
The department requested $880 million for the project this year, but so far the House has only be able to allocate $131 million since the policy change has not gone through. The project must compete with other federal spending items in the bill, meaning other programs would have to be cut to make up the $749 million shortfall.
Barton's bill would make up the difference and allow only funds above the $750 million guarantee to have to compete with other programs.
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