Exemption plan could jeopardize Yucca funds

Suzanne Struglinski

Thursday, March 11, 2004 | 11:04 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department's $880 million budget request for the Yucca Mountain Project may be jeopardized by a plan to get money exempted, Rep. David Hobson, R-Ohio, said today.

Hobson, who heads the House appropriations subcommittee, told Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham that the agency's plan to secure $749 million of its request for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 directly from the Nuclear Waste Fund is a "dangerous gamble." Senate leaders and election-year politics are showing the idea will not move forward, Hobson said.

The department is asking Congress to fully fund its Yucca Mountain request and change its budget rules so the $749 million would come directly from the Nuclear Waste Fund, an account made up of surcharges on nuclear power to pay for nuclear waste storage. That would save the item from competing with other programs the subcommittee and ultimately Congress must fund.

The remaining $131 million for Yucca Mountain would come from the Defense Department or general taxpayer money.

"Frankly this isn't a bad proposal but it is a risky proposal," Hobson said. "I am really concerned on the hole in your budget. The total request for Yucca Mountain appears to be inadequate."

Hobson said if Congress does not approve the department's plan to change the budget rules, he is not sure that the subcommittee would be able to make up the difference without severely cutting other programs. Hobson strongly supports the Yucca project.

"I don't know if there's another program within the Energy Department that can take it," Hobson said. "I don't know where the extra money will come from down the road ... unless you are all are willing to take a hit somewhere."

Abraham said that since he took office he has been hearing that due to "political dynamics"' the department, the president and Congress would not be able to move forward with the project, but the agency's ability to get the project to the licensing phase in 2002 proved otherwise.

"I am not prepared to concede that we cannot win this," Abraham said.

He noted that the department was still working on schedule and planned to submit the license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the end of the year.

The overall request for the federal nuclear waste storage site at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, marks about a $300 million increase from the project's current budget, which at $580 million was its largest to date.

Nevada's congressional delegation and other critics of the site strongly oppose the high funding request and the attempt to change how Congress allocates money to the project.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., had the Senate Budget Committee lower the cap for the project to $577 million in the budget resolution, which is still being debated on the Senate floor, while Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the top Democrat on the Senate subcommittee that controls the Yucca budget, has no intention of letting the funding change or the high request move forward.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., the top Republican on the same subcommittee, had plans to offer an amendment to the budget resolution to bring the number back up, but a spokesman said today he is no longer planning to offer it.

Of the $880 million request, $186 million would go toward studying transportation routes next year, including $23 million for routes in Nevada. The request also includes $7 million for the counties and local government and $2.5 million for the state for its oversight responsibilities on the project.