State may pull punch as Yucca fight intensifies

Even as the federal government plans to add up to $109 million in attorney power to push Yucca Mountain forward, Nevada's modest budget to fight the nuclear waste dump might shrink because of Gov. Jim Gibbons' demands for spending cuts.

The Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects is not exempt from 5 percent budget cuts that Gibbons has asked most state agencies to prepare. Such a cut would amount to about $200,000 over the next two fiscal years, just as the fight enters a critical juncture.

Bob Loux, executive director of the agency, said the reduction would mean less money to hire outside scientists and attorneys to fight the federal government.

The possible reduction in Nevada firepower comes as the Energy Department has hired a second law firm to prepare the application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for Yucca Mountain. The government plans to spend nearly $50 million at the outset for the legal services, with possible contract extensions that would bring the lawyers' tab to upward of $100 million.

"I still think we're going to kick their butts. I don't care how many law firms they have," Gibbons said Wednesday after meeting with elected officials to discuss the state's budget problems.

But news of the Bush administration's heightened efforts to prepare the Yucca Mountain application, coupled with Nevada's financial problems, frustrated others.

Nevada Republican Rep. Jon Porter said he understands the need to cut some areas of state spending because revenue isn't meeting expectations.

The fight against the nuclear waste dump, though, should be exempt, he said.

"Yucca Mountain should be in the top-tier level of priorities," Porter said. "I would hope it remains a priority in the budget."

Nevada Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley was more forceful. She pointed to the Energy Department's stated commitment to submit its Yucca Mountain application by June.

"At this moment, to be considering cutting rather than adding resources for Nevada to be able to fight the Department of Energy is insanity," Berkley said.

Even if the state's attorney general's office can step in and help on legal matters, there's no one to pick up the work of scientists, Berkley said.

"To be credible, the science should be legitimate," she said. "Why would we cut that now?"

Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto's office referred calls to the governor.

Loux, the state's point man in the anti-dump efforts, finds himself delicately in the middle of the issue. "Clearly, we would rather not have the budget cut," he said. "We're in a rather critical stage of the Yucca program. On other hand, if the governor feels like we need to be cut, we will."

Gibbons has not made any decisions on which state agencies face budget cuts, but has promised to protect budgets for public safety, corrections, K-12 education and forest fire suppression.

The possibility of cutting the state's efforts to fight a repository at Yucca Mountain, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, did not come up at Wednesday's budget summit in Carson City.

The Energy Department hired the law firm Lewis & Bockius LLP in September. The initial contract runs through 2011 and is worth $48 million, with five one-year options. It could eventually be worth $109 million.

Before that the department retained the law firm Hunton & Williams LLP . Its five-year contract, signed in 2004, is worth $45 million.

Gibbons ' decision not to protect Nevada's battle against the dump is not the first reason opponents of a Yucca repository have had to question the governor.

Earlier this year, Cortez Masto and Loux pushed Gibbons and his key aides to stop the federal government from using the state's water for drilling at Yucca Mountain.

Gibbons allowed the water to be used for a time anyway.

Gibbons also removed a fierce repository opponent on the Nevada Nuclear Projects Commission, a driving force against the dump, and replaced that member with a well-known Yucca advocate. The appointment later was rescinded.

He also did not attend a Senate hearing in Washington on Yucca Mountain to which he had pushed to be invited.

Melissa Subbotin, Gibbons' press secretary, said the governor remained staunchly against the dump.

"There is no question whatsoever to the governor's commitment to fighting the Yucca Mountain project," she said.