Editorial: Utah decides against Yucca Mountain fight

Some utilities have expressed an interest in temporarily storing nuclear waste at an Indian reservation in Utah, a prospect that Gov. Mike Leavitt and the Utah Legislature have been dead-set against. Usually states play tag on nuclear waste and don't feel the need to help others eyed for man's deadliest waste, but Nevada has been a good neighbor and sided with Utah in its efforts to prevent nuclear waste from going there. Leavitt previously has indicated he shares the concerns of Nevadans about Yucca Mountain, too.

That is why it initially was so encouraging to see a resolution introduced at the Utah Legislature that would have put that state on record as opposing President Bush's plan to build a nuclear waste dump in Nevada, a resolution that cited the dangers of transporting the waste to our state. Such a statement by the Utah Legislature would have been a boost in Nevada's efforts to help gather momentum in Congress to block the president's decision. But the resolution didn't pass, dying when the Legislature adjourned on Wednesday. The sponsor of the resolution, Sen. Gene Davis, a Salt Lake City Democrat, said it was Leavitt who didn't want the resolution to go anywhere. "He doesn't even want it discussed," Davis told the Associated Press. The resolution wouldn't have required his signature, but his support could have helped its chances for passage.

Leavitt's relationship with Nevada, and that of most of the members of Utah's Legislature, obviously has become a one-way street. Maybe they didn't want to stand up to Utah's congressional delegation, which always has supported a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. And now that President Bush, a Republican, is on record as supporting Yucca Mountain, Leavitt and the Republican-led Utah Legislature could have been reluctant to oppose him. It's not surprising to see some states shrink from siding with Nevada on Yucca Mountain, but Utah looks bad -- with all that it has at stake in its own battle -- for taking a pass on this fight.

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