Option on Yucca appeal left open

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2004 | 11:09 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The federal government is maintaining its option to seek a Supreme Court review of a lower court ruling against Yucca Mountain.

The request for appeal remains unlikely and would contradict stances made by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Energy Department. The two agencies have signalled they have no interest in a Supreme Court appeal.

The Energy Department has said the best way to proceed "is not to engage in further litigation but to allow EPA to work to develop an appropriate regulatory response to address the issues raised by the courts," department spokesman Joe Davis said.

Still, a court document filed by the Justice Department on Sept. 23 asserts that the department's solicitor general is clinging to the Supreme Court option. The deadline to request an appeal is Nov. 30.

At issue is a July 9 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. It said the EPA's 10,000-year radiation standard for the proposed waste repository at Yucca unlawfully deviated from stricter National Academy of Sciences recommendations.

The ruling was a significant setback to the Energy Department plan to bury the nation's high-level nuclear waste at Yucca, Nevada officials said.

White House spokesman Ken Lisaius this week gave no new signal that President Bush wants to appeal to the nation's highest court.

"There is nothing changed" in Bush's stance, Lisaius said.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., said she expects Bush will push for a Supreme Court challenge after the election.

"George Bush is desperate to pick up Nevada's five electoral votes," Berkley said.