Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Nevada officials prepare anti-Yucca legal strategy

Lawyers, consultants choose best arguments for defeating nuke dump

LEESBURG, Va. -- At a conference center outside Washington D.C., Nevada-hired attorneys, state officials and technical experts on Tuesday began forming legal presentations against the Yucca Mountain Project.

For three days this week, Nevada advisers planned to dissect four major cases the state has filed in federal court to challenge the proposed nuclear waste repository. The participants are identifying points to stress during oral arguments and anticipating counterattacks by government attorneys when the case is heard in federal appeals court.

"We have an agenda of all the legal arguments that have been presented in the respective briefs of both sides," Attorney General Brian Sandoval said. "We have to wean those down to the point we get the biggest bang in our presentation."

Gathered behind closed doors at the Lansdowne Resort in suburban Virginia, Sandoval, state nuclear projects director Bob Loux and 18 lawyers and state-hired science consultants began by discussing the state's defense against procedural points that Justice and Energy department attorneys have raised in legal briefs, Sandoval said.

From there the officials were scheduled to plot presentations in the state's lawsuits against the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Energy Department.

Each of the lawsuits charges the federal agencies with procedural shortcomings and federal law violations in setting the stage for President Bush's February 2002 recommendation of Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, for burial of 77,000 tons of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel and waste from government installations.

A fourth lawsuit charges the government violated Nevada's rights under the U.S. Constitution when it singled out Yucca Mountain for a repository over the veto of Gov. Kenny Guinn.

Sandoval declined to discuss details of the state's preparations when interviewed during a break in the meeting.

The planning session was scheduled when the state was expecting to appear Oct. 3 before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

But the court postponed the hearings, after reclassifying the Yucca cases as a "complex" matter that will allow both sides more time to make presentations before the judges.

"I think that will be beneficial for the state given the complexity of the issues involved," Sandoval said.

Last month, Sandoval reactivated his license to practice law in Washington D.C., anticipating some part in the state's presentations. He said his role in the courtroom has yet to be determined. But noting all the state's major attorneys are from out-of-state, "I think its important to have a Nevada presence" before the judges.

Nevada leaders have approved paying up to $4 million to Egan, Fitzpatrick and Malsch, a suburban Washington firm that has assembled a legal and technical team to represent the state in court and in license hearings before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Firm president Joseph Egan sat at the head of the conference table on Tuesday. Among others present were constitutional expert Charles Cooper, former Nuclear Regulatory Commission member Victor Gilinsky, former top NRC attorneys Martin Malsch and William Briggs, and California environmental attorney Antonio Rossman.

Sandoval said he believed $4 million is money well spent on legal advisers. "We have put together the strongest possible legal team," he said. "It's worth in my opinion every penny. We are finally getting to a forum where Nevada can be heard. We cannot leave anything on the table."