Columnist Jeff German: Hunt only one in GOP with guts

Friday, June 24, 2005 | 11:08 a.m.

Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt has finally received that official White House snub we've been expecting in the mail.

Three months after she wrote President Bush asking him to abandon the stalled Yucca Mountain Project, Hunt has heard back from the White House.

The president, a White House aide wrote, has no desire to turn his back on the flawed multibillion-dollar project that aims to store the nation's dangerous high-level nuclear waste in our backyard.

"The fact remains that the U.S. needs a permanent geological nuclear waste repository, and the administration will continue to pursue that goal," said Ruben Barrales, a deputy assistant to the president.

This is hardly surprising.

Just this week the Republican president, whom many regard as being beholden to the wealthy nuclear industry lobby, was publicly pushing for more nuclear power plants that will create more deadly waste.

But don't worry, Barrales told Hunt, "President Bush is committed to the safety, protection and health of the citizens of Nevada as the development of the Yucca Mountain project is pursued."

We're supposed to trust the president, like many of us did on the campaign trail a few years ago, when he said he would base his Yucca Mountain recommendation on "sound science."

We really got snookered on that one.

If Hunt didn't see the disingenuous nature of the White House response at this point, she should have seen it when Barrales said he was forwarding her letter to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman "for his review and further consideration."

Barrales might as well have tossed the letter in the wastebasket, because that's what Bodman is likely to do with it.

In his brief tenure at the helm of the Energy Department, Bodman has become the administration's staunchest Yucca Mountain proponent.

He's the guy who turned a cold shoulder to Nevada congressional leaders during a meeting in Washington last month.

Despite the existence of government e-mails suggesting scientific evidence was rigged at Yucca Mountain, Bodman told the delegation members that he's pressing ahead with the effort to ram the nuclear waste dump down our throats.

Hunt, meanwhile, said she was disappointed in the White House response.

She wouldn't criticize the president, but she said he's getting bad advice from the people around him, including Bodman.

"I think Secretary Bodman's judgment on this issue is flawed," Hunt explained. "He needs to move up to the 21st Century."

Hunt, a Republican candidate for governor, said she's dumbfounded that the administration continues to pursue an "archaic" nuclear waste policy that dates back nearly 50 years.

Bob Loux, the state's chief Yucca Mountain watchdog, said he sees the White House response as more evidence that the president and his administration are in the "ultimate state of denial.

"You've got a project that's dead out there," he said, "and they're still under the illusion that it's going forward."

No one really expected that President Bush would actually listen to Hunt -- even in the face of Yucca Mountain's recent setbacks.

The president probably never even saw her letter.

But we do have something positive to take away from this experience.

We know there's at least one elected Republican in this state who isn't afraid to take this fight directly to the White House.

If only there were a few more.