Reading the fine print

Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.

There is little to no chance the energy plan vociferously supported by Republicans will have any more than peripheral influence this week as the House prepares to debate a solution to high gas prices.

That is fortunate for Nevada because the Republicans included in their plan the authorization of substantially more money for the development of Yucca Mountain.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., exposed this detail buried in the bill the Republicans have been pushing for months, seeking to improve their chances on Election Day.

Although Republicans say conservation and alternative energies are part of their plan, its overarching goal is to repeal much of the federal ban on offshore oil drilling. Congress has annually renewed the ban for the past 27 years.

The ban, affecting 85 percent of the country’s coastal waters, was put in place to protect beaches and other sensitive shorelines from inevitable oil spills that bring disaster for state economies as well as the environment.

Berkley discovered the Yucca Mountain language while studying the details of the Republican plan. She said in a statement that this bill would “mean billions more” for the mountain ridge 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The federal government has spent about $14 billion preparing the ridge as a dump for the nation’s nuclear waste, a dump that 20 years of research by Nevada has proved would never be safe. A key accomplishment of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has been to gain support from his colleagues to cut the annual appropriation for Yucca sought by the Bush administration.

Lisa Mascaro, the Las Vegas Sun’s Washington reporter, wrote for Monday’s paper that Reps. Jon Porter and Dean Heller, both R-Nev., are strong supporters of the Republican energy plan. Yet they claim to be ardently opposed to the Yucca Mountain project. They can’t have it both ways.

Fortunately the majority Democrats will be the ones to bring a bill to the floor. Although it will likely be a limited compromise on the drilling issue, it will not compromise the safety of Nevadans in regard to Yucca Mountain.