Porter prepared to turn up heat on e-mails

Suzanne Struglinski

Friday, July 15, 2005 | 10:49 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jon Porter may add another layer to the fight for the Yucca Mountain project's draft license application if he subpoenas the Energy Department for documents related to his investigation into employee e-mails.

Porter, R-Nev., requested a copy of the draft during the April 5 subcommittee hearing on the e-mails, but the department has still not turned it over. Porter includes the draft among the pile of documents the department must willingly turn over by 4 p.m. Monday or Porter will get subpoenas for them.

Nevada officials want the draft license application, completed last July, to see what decisions the department had made for the proposed nuclear waste repository. The application was supposed to have been turned in last December, but it ran into more delays.

Porter wants the draft to see how potentially compromised science may have worked its way into final research.

He heads the House Government Reform subcommittee on the federal workforce and agency organization, which is investigating e-mails sent by government employees that suggest employees tampered with scientific research on the repository.

Porter has already subpoenaed U.S. Geological Survey scientist Joseph Hevesi for the investigation. Hevesi testified at a June 29 hearing, where he emphasized that he did not falsify any Yucca Mountain project documents.

House Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., who has the power to issue the subpoenas, supports Porter's efforts and said the subpoena would be "more in your face to the administration."

"There is no reason they should be able to keep these secret," Davis said. "These should be made available to Congress."

Davis said getting the document will help members of the committee and Congress as a whole have a better understanding of what is going on at the project.

Beyond the draft application, Porter wants organizational charts, correspondence on employment status and other documents. The department did turn over redacted copies of e-mails sent by Hevesi and other employees, but then sent a letter to Porter saying he could view more documents at the department headquarters.

"That is an insult to Congress and the American people," Porter said.