Sandoval to address delegates

Suzanne Struglinski

Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2004 | 9:43 a.m.

NEW YORK -- Attorney General Brian Sandoval will take the podium and address his fellow Republicans tonight, praising the Bush administration's record on protecting children, representing his strong support for Bush's re-election.

But Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., cannot understand how he can praise one part of Bush's record while suing him over another: the administration's and the GOP's support for a nuclear waste repository.

"You can't fight the president in the morning and support him as a candidate in the evening," Berkley said. "He's the very man that's giving us Yucca Mountain."

Sandoval believes Bush is a great leader and that he will allow legal decisions to stand and the repository to be safe, as the president has promised, but still does not want the waste to come to Nevada.

Sandoval said his support for the president does not diminish his fight against the proposed repository.

"The White House knows that I will use every tool at my disposal to fight the Yucca Mountain Project," Sandoval said. "The president knows that and we've had that conversation."

"This is a party where the people can disagree on issues," he said, referring to a message brought up by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger during his address to the convention Tuesday.

"We looked each other in the eye and we disagreed." Sandoval said there is no conflict and the protection of children, which he will address tonight, the president's efforts to combat terrorism, protecting the homeland and many others reasons are why he is good for the state.

He called Tuesday's ruling by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission -- that the Energy Department did not follow documentation rules -- "a monumental victory for the State of Nevada," because it will most likely delay the licensing process for nuclear waste repository at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. He said it is a "good sign" the board is listening to Nevada's arguments.

Sandoval called the project "dead" when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in July that the 10,000-year radiation standard did not meet the legal requirements set for the project by Congress and agreed the NRC board's ruling was another nail in Yucca's coffin.

"We are finally in a level playing field with an impartial third party and they are agreeing with us," Sandoval said of the recent NRC decision.

But Berkley said that is because it is clear the Bush administration does not agree with Nevada and has done everything it can to move the project forward.

"The president is ignoring the court's decision that says the Environmental Protection Agency was short," Berkley said. "That is not leadership. This is lying to the people of the state of Nevada. I am astounded (Sandoval) is not using his post to protect the state."

She said that by strongly supporting the president he is sending mixed signals to the White House. Sandoval and Gov. Kenny Guinn, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., and Rep. Jon Porter R-Nev., all work toward the president's re-election, with Guinn and Sandoval co-chairmen of Bush's Nevada effort.

"They are in a perfect position to say if you go ahead with this we are withdrawing our support," Berkley said. "If I was president I would be ignoring them too."

Republicans and the Bush campaign point to Kerry's support of several bills that helped advance the project and the fact that Clinton administration science is what the Energy Department used to help establish that the project was safe, which Nevada disputes.

But Berkley insisted that it does not matter what happened in the past.

"It matters what is happening now," Berkley said.

When Bush visited Nevada in August, he criticized Kerry for flip-flopping positions on Yucca.

"My point to you is that if they're going to change, one day they may change again," Bush said then. "I think you need straight talk on this issue. I think you need somebody who is going to do what he says he's going to do."

Berkley said "what he's going to do is give us nuclear waste. I don't care if it's honest. It's wrong."

She said the Republican platform wants more nuclear power and a nuclear waste repository, "and we know where they plan to put it."