Columnist Jeff German: Chance to KO Yucca not taken

Tuesday, May 10, 2005 | 10:57 a.m.

Nevada has waged a spirited underdog fight against Yucca Mountain over the years.

The state's persistence has turned the tide and backed the federal government into the ropes in recent months.

But with a knockout in sight, state lawmakers last week surprisingly let their guard down.

Legislative money committees, meeting in a joint session, voted to slash the anti-Yucca Mountain legal fund from $2 million to $1 million over the next two years.

And we heard no protests from the governor and his top Yucca Mountain watchdog, Bob Loux.

The vote has potential to raise the spirits of the Energy Department and its influential allies on Capitol Hill at a time when their confidence in the multibillion-dollar project can't be high.

It suggests that Nevada, after all of these years, doesn't have the heart to go for the knockout in the ring.

Loux, it turns out, may have inadvertently steered state lawmakers onto this dangerous course. He told the two panels, as he has been telling others for months, that the battle with the government is all but over.

That was an invitation for the fiscal conservatives to find other uses for the nuclear waste money -- to the delight of the staggered Energy Department.

Yucca Mountain is indeed in trouble.

A federal appeals court has tossed out the government's inadequate safety standards for storing the deadly waste 90 miles outside Las Vegas.

And recently discovered e-mails have suggested that scientific research was rigged to move the project along.

But in the face of this adversity the Energy Department has shown no signs of throwing in the towel. This is the department that has covered up past misdeeds and danced around a host of obstacles to send the nation's radioactive waste our way.

So why should Nevada give its archenemy the impression that it's lightening up?

"Although things at the Energy Department are in a state of administrative chaos, we don't want to count our chickens before they're hatched," says former Sen. Richard Bryan, a longtime leader in the Yucca Mountain fight.

"There's no question that it looks better than it has ever looked for us, but I personally would feel more comfortable if we had the $2 million."

I'll bet the Nevada congressional delegation feels the same way heading into an important meeting this afternoon with energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. The delegation is looking to persuade Bodman to put Yucca Mountain out of its misery.

But once again Nevada forces aren't on the same page.

Loux says he's confident he'll be able to get more money from lawmakers if he needs it down the road.

"They've been pretty generous in the past in helping us," he says. "So I don't see a big problem there."

What is a problem, however, is giving a cunning opponent an opening in the ring to turn the tables on you.