Columnist Jeff German: Governor wimps out on Yucca

Friday, April 8, 2005 | 11:01 a.m.

When history judges the performance of Nevada Republicans in the epic fight against Yucca Mountain, it's going to see an embarrassing string of missed opportunities to show leadership.

Time and time again Gov. Kenny Guinn and the Republican members of the congressional delegation -- Sen. John Ensign and Reps. Jim Gibbons and Jon Porter -- have refused to stand up to the Republican president who asked Congress to make Nevada the nation's nuclear waste dumping ground.

This week Guinn traveled to Washington to testify before Porter's subcommittee looking into allegations that government scientists may have falsified research on the Yucca Mountain project. This may be the very research that President Bush and his Energy Department relied upon to declare the project safe to store the dangerous nuclear waste.

Guinn was forceful in his comments, likening the latest Yucca Mountain revelations to the corporate scandals involving Enron and WorldCom.

But the governor didn't follow up on his tough rhetoric with a visit down the street to the president, the one man who can get the country out of the worsening Yucca Mountain mess.

It was obvious that the Energy Department didn't give a hoot about Guinn's concerns, nor those expressed by the Nevada delegation. Department officials told the subcommittee they were determined to press ahead with the project in the face of the incriminating allegations.

What arrogance!

A real leader would have gathered his fellow Republicans after the subcommittee hearing and marched to the White House to express their collective anger.

Instead, the governor flew home to the comfortable confines of Carson City.

There is plenty that Guinn and his fellow Republicans could have sought from Bush -- short of imploring him to kill Yucca Mountain altogether.

They could have asked the president to support their call for an independent commission to investigate the data-rigging allegations.

They could have asked the president to halt work on the wounded project until those allegations have been thoroughly investigated.

And they could have asked the president to order the Energy Department to give state officials a copy of the draft license application for Yucca Mountain -- the one that probably includes some of the reported fabricated research.

Guinn at least did say he wants to meet with Bush. He's just not sure when the meeting should occur.

"He wants to get all of his ducks in a row," says spokesman Greg Bortolin. "We don't have the complete picture yet on what happened. ... Let's wait until we see the results of the investigations."

But that could take weeks. There is no time to waste here. The Yucca Mountain project has never been more vulnerable.

Guinn, himself, pointed that out in his remarks to Porter's subcommittee.

"The evidence is becoming overwhelming that the Yucca Mountain program is broken beyond repair," he said. "It is hemorrhaging money. It cannot meet appropriate health and safety standards. It is falling farther and farther behind schedule .. and now the project has lost whatever scientific credibility that might have been remaining."

If only the governor could get inspired by his own words and show us the leadership we deserve in this fight.