Columnist Jeff German: Guinn gives ‘Mr. Nuke’ a reward

Friday, May 7, 2004 | 11:13 a.m.

No one has fought harder against the high-level nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain than Gov. Kenny Guinn.

But the Republican governor slipped up this week when he appointed Ace Robison, a leading Yucca Mountain advocate -- or "Mr. Nuke," as the Nevada opposition forces call him -- to a plum position on the Colorado River Commission.

The appointment comes on the heels of a weekend attempt by Yucca Mountain supporters at the Republican Party's state convention to win approval for a platform resolution urging Nevada officials to seek economic benefits for the nearby dump.

The failed effort was seen as a sign of weakness on the part of the state in its high-stakes battle with the nuclear industry and the Energy Department.

Guinn played a big role in shooting down the resolution. But then he turned around and put a hired gun of the industry on one of the state's most important commissions, which created still another impression that opposition is weakening.

What was the governor thinking?

Through his consulting firm, Robison, a heavyweight within GOP circles, is regarded as one of the nuclear industry's biggest political operatives and purveyors of disinformation in Nevada in the Yucca Mountain fight.

He gets big bucks to undermine the state's opposition.

And now Guinn, the leader of the opposition, has given Robison legitimacy in the fight by placing him in the mainstream of state government.

Just last week Bob Loux, the state's Yucca Mountain watchdog, said he believes Robison's consulting firm has been receiving $250,000 a year from the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's Washington-based lobbying arm. Robison, once a top aide to former Sen. Paul Laxalt and a ranking Energy Department official, did not dispute that claim.

His firm also is paid by Lincoln and Esmeralda counties roughly $300,000 a year in consulting fees out of federally mandated Yucca Mountain oversight funds provided by the nuclear industry. By no small surprise, opposition to the dump is weakest in those counties, which support Robison's stance of negotiating for benefits.

In 1998 Rick Nielsen, the executive director of Citizen Alert, an environmental group opposed to Yucca Mountain, described Robison's consulting company as "the nuclear power industry's paid public relations firm in Nevada."

Citizen Alert's current leader, Peggy Maze Johnson, said that's still the case today.

Johnson said she's flabbergasted over Robison's appointment.

"How can you be totally against the governor on Yucca Mountain and get a prestigious assignment like this?" she asked. "You reward people for help they've given you. Ace Robison has not given this governor or this state any help."

Robison, a fourth generation Nevadan, acknowledged that he's been on the industry's payroll the last 10 years to provide advice on what he calls "Nevada feelings and attitudes regarding Yucca Mountain."

But he said he wasn't happy about being branded a traitor to Nevada.

"When I last heard, there was no muzzle on being an American citizen," he said. "This litmus test that has to do with the nuclear waste issue is just an unfortunate thing. There ought to be room for disagreement without being disagreeable."

Guinn aides said Robison, with his vast government experience, is perfectly suited to sit on the Colorado River Commission and won't be able to use that seat to harm the state's position in the Yucca Mountain fight.

A cynic, however, would argue that the state's position was harmed the very day Guinn appointed "Mr. Nuke" to the commission.