Friday, June 20, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

YUCCA MOUNTAIN ADVERTISING: Study: Big spenders won

Pro-nuclear waste dump groups clearly outspent Nevada and anti-project forces

WASHINGTON -- Lobbyists seeking to sway lawmakers on the Yucca Mountain Project last summer spent more than $570,000 to advertise in newspapers and newsletters with big audiences on Capitol Hill, according to a study released Thursday.

The Annenberg Public Policy Center estimated that groups favoring Nevada for nuclear waste disposal accounted for most of the spending in publications aimed at decision-makers inside the Beltway, such as The Washington Post, Roll Call and Congress DailyAM.

The center, which is affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, estimated that 96 percent, $550,000, of 2001 and 2002 advertising sought to persuade Congress to vote in favor of Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, for a waste repository.

Its 83-page study found that in 10 out of a dozen issues it examined, the side that prevailed in Congress was the side that spent more money on issue ads. That included Yucca Mountain.

"More money was spent to open a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, and legislation to make this happen was passed," said the report authored by analyst Erika Falk. The Senate voted 60-39 on July 9, 2002, to complete legislation designating the site for nuclear waste disposal.

"The imbalance in spending on legislative issue advocacy raises such questions as is the public interest well served when the message of one side is shouted and the other side whispered," Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Annenberg Public Policy Center director, said in a statement.

Overall, the center estimated more than 670 advocacy groups and coalitions spent $105 million on ads to influence Congress during 2001 and 2002.

Researchers analyzed more than 5,000 ads on public policy issues that ran in The Washington Post and Washington Times, and Roll Call, The Hill and CongressDaily AM, publications that circulate mostly on Capitol Hill, in federal agencies and among lobbyists.

Ads broadcast on Washington television stations and nationally on cable and network TV also were examined, although lobbyists on the Yucca Mountain issue said Thursday their battles were not fought over the national or Washington airwaves.

The Annenberg study concluded the biggest spender on inside-the-Beltway pro-Yucca Mountain ads was the Nuclear Energy Institute, which represents nuclear plant owners and operators.

The study estimated the institute spent $260,000 on ads targeted to Congress. NEI spokesman Mitch Singer said he could not confirm the group's spending amounts.

Singer said the institute bought ads in Washington publications to reach decision-makers. At the same time the industry group formed a coalition group, the Alliance for Sound Nuclear Policy, which bought print and television advertising in targeted states.

The Annenberg study authors conceded their spending estimates were not exact because advocacy organizations are not required to report their expenditures and newspapers and television stations are not obligated to make their ad sales public.

For instance, the study estimates that the state of Nevada and other Yucca Mountain opponents spent only $20,000 on issue ads. However, a financial analysis prepared for the state showed that in April 2002 at least $51,207 was spent on Washington newspaper ads opposing the project.

In trying to fight off the Yucca project, Nevada leaders preferred to spend on grass-roots advertising, according to Las Vegas advertising executive Mark Brown, whose firm Brown & Partners coordinated anti-Yucca media campaigns.

"While a small amount of money went to inside-the-Beltway publications, most of it was targeted to states where the ads had a call to action," Brown said.

Brown said he disagreed with the Annenberg Center's thesis that issue ads directed to a Washington audience play a big role in moving lawmakers.

"I stick with the old adage that all politics are local," Brown said. "What moves members of Congress is getting phone calls from back home, and our preference was to hit home."

Brown said the side that wins usually has the bigger media budget overall, an advantage clearly enjoyed by pro-Yucca groups. He estimated NEI ad spending at between $15 million and $20 million overall while Nevada's media budget was a little more than $2 million.