Republican senator challenges Clinton’s opposition to Yucca

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Clinton's commitment to fight Yucca Mountain was challenged Wednesday by a Republican senator who said the Democratic presidential candidate was a no-show for two nuclear waste hearings her committee had last year.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., sought to poke a hole in Clinton's promise that she would "not go forward" with the proposed Nevada nuclear waste repository if she is elected.

When Clinton had a chance to take part in Environment and Public Works hearings on the repository, "she was missing in action," said Inhofe, a Yucca backer and the committee's chairman at the time.

Clinton's campaign issued a rebuttal in which it said her absences were because of "important Senate business on behalf of her constituents, and issues of national importance."

Hilarie Grey, a spokeswoman, insisted that Clinton being elsewhere was not a sign that she is inattentive on the issue. Clinton has advertised herself to Nevada voters as perhaps the strongest Yucca critic among the candidates.

"Senator Clinton's record shows she is a consistent and vocal opponent of making Yucca Mountain the nation's nuclear waste repository," Grey said.

The dustup shows how the candidates continue to view Yucca Mountain as a cutting issue in Nevada, perhaps more so now that the state is hosting early presidential caucuses in January, said Eric Herzik, professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Inhofe's charge "may cause Clinton some embarrassment but it is not going to hurt her in the polls," Herzik said.

The episode comes in the wake of Clinton's remarks on Friday calling for new Senate hearings to focus on Yucca Mountain health and safety, and for the Energy Department to shelve its repository licensing preparations.

In a teleconference with Nevada reporters, Clinton, a frontrunner in state polls, repeated her promise that she "will not go forward" with the Yucca project if she is elected president in November 2008.

Inhofe questioned Clinton's call for Senate action. He said she did not attend a committee hearing on Yucca Mountain on March 1, 2006, and a subcommittee hearing on nuclear waste on Sept. 14.

In a statement, Inhofe said he took exception to a Clinton comment to reporters that the Republicans when they ran Congress were "not willing to ask the hard questions" about the repository.

"When Senator Clinton had the opportunity to ask 'hard questions' of administration officials about Yucca Mountain, she was missing in action," Inhofe said.

"In fact, Senator Clinton failed to ask any questions because she was absent from the last two EPW hearings on Yucca Mountain," he said.

One of the hearings was by a subcommittee that Clinton did not belong to. But committee members are allowed to attend all meetings, said Marc Morano, a Republican committee aide.

"She could still attend," Morano said. "Either she did not consider it important enough or she was too busy to attend."

Clinton's campaign responded with information on the senator's whereabouts on the days of the hearings.

On March 1, she attended an overlapping hearing on the Ryan White CARE Act, an aid bill for HIV/AIDS patients.

On Sept. 14, Clinton chaired a meeting of the Democratic Steering Committee that involved international women's rights. She then attended a Senate Armed Services Committee closed meeting on military commissions to handle the treatment of enemy combatants.

The environment committee's new chairman, Democrat Barbara Boxer of California, has agreed to Clinton's request to have a Yucca hearing after the Senate's August recess, according to an aide who was cited Tuesday by Energy and Environment Daily, an electronic newsletter.

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., came to Clinton's defense, saying the New York senator's opposition to the repository "has been pretty consistent through the years and she has made very public statements against putting nuclear waste in Nevada."

"More than that I would not expect from anyone, and it is certainly more than Senator Inhofe has ever done for Nevada," said Berkley, who has not declared a preference among Democrats running for president.

But Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., said Clinton was being "disingenuous" by criticizing Republicans on the Yucca issue when opposition to the repository has been bipartisan, at least in Nevada.

Democrats now run Congress, and if Clinton wanted to kill Yucca Mountain, "she could do it now. She could start that movement now if she were serious about it."

"I am eagerly awaiting the new Democratic Congress to not fund Yucca Mountain and to kill the project," Porter said.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said through a spokesman that Inhofe's charge "is yet another desperate move by people looking to turn Nevada into a nuclear dumping ground."

Like Berkley, Reid has not yet backed a presidential candidate.