Reid delays meeting after hearing of Yucca plan

Suzanne Struglinski

Tuesday, June 22, 2004 | 11:08 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., delayed a Senate Appropriations meeting that was supposed to take place today after learning of a plan that could funnel more money to the Yucca Mountain project.

Senate Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., told Reid on Friday that he planned to request an additional $446 million from nuclear ratepayers to put toward the Yucca Mountain project and change budget policy to make it easier to get the project $750 million every year.

The additional money from the industry would bring the budget for Yucca Mountain to $577 million next year, the same amount as this year. That's still $303 million short of the department's $880 million request for fiscal year 2005 but more than the $131 million Congress would have to approve without an overall budget policy change the administration has requested.

Domenici's budget policy change would allow Congress to take $750 million each year from a pool of money funded directly by a surcharge on nuclear power. That is designed to help the project garner more money in the budget process because the money in the pool could not be used for anything other than the Yucca project. A similar proposal is under consideration in the House.

The Energy Department has said a $131 million budget would force layoffs and make the department miss its planned 2010 opening date, but project spokesman Allen Benson would not comment on what would happen if the project is funded for another year of $577 million. He said he did not wish to speculate on what would happen at any other funding level.

After hearing of Domenici's plan, Reid, who is the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriation Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, sent a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, asking for more time on the bill. Reid did not mention the nuclear waste issue specifically but said the Democratic staff had not had enough time to look at the whole bill.

Reid strongly objects to both of Domenici's proposals and is figuring out his strategy to try to defeat them, an aide said.

"If Yucca Mountain funding is truly that important to him (Domenici), then he could have funded it by taking money from his New Mexico weapons labs instead of advancing a proposal already rejected by the Senate Budget Committee earlier this year," Reid said. "(Nevada Republican) Sen. (John) Ensign and I remain opposed to any special budgetary treatment for Yucca Mountain and, given that Sen. Domenici has engaged in writing language that impacts both the Finance and Budget committees, I will be surprised if there is enough support for this ploy to work."

Reid said Domenici was "acting on behalf of a desperate administration and nuclear industry" by "trying to advance Yucca through the backdoor with already rejected legislative proposals and spending gimmicks."

Ensign, who sits on the Senate Budget Committee, stopped the budget policy change from going through earlier this year, making it clear the bill would not get his much-needed vote to pass if it included the change.

Domenici still plans to include the proposal in his version of the Energy and Water Development spending bill that will now be introduced in July, an aide said.

His proposal would create a one-time increase on the fee charged to nuclear ratepayers that would put an additional $446 million into the general treasury, specifically earmarked for Yucca Mountain, an aide said. Nuclear ratepayers would end up putting $1.2 billion into the project, a 60 percent increase from the $750 million it would pay anyway.