Yucca battle backed

CARSON CITY -- Legislators told Gov. Jim Gibbons on Wednesday to back off from cuts in the state agency leading the fight against federal efforts to open a high-level radioactive waste dump at Yucca Mountain.

During a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the state Agency for Nuclear Projects, Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, told Bruce Breslow, the agency's new head, to "be a mad dog on this issue" in battling the Department of Energy.

Coffin said Gibbons "has a promise to the people of Nevada to keep, not to himself about his political career." Coffin complained that the governor's cutback plan for the state agency signaled to dump proponents that "Nevada is quitting" its fight against the waste dump.

Senate Finance Chairwoman Bernice Mathews, D-Reno, said she didn't understand how Gibbons could propose cutting the agency staff from seven to two workers, one of them part time, with a state fight against the dump project that has been waged for more than 20 years.

Advised by state Budget Director Andrew Clinger that a pending audit could change the governor's budget proposal, Mathews questioned why the reductions were recommended before the audit was done.

Breslow said he is hoping to get the agency staffing level up to four, plus a key contract employee. He said in talking with Gibbons, "I looked him in the eye and asked him the question, 'Are you opposed to Yucca Mountain?' He assured me he is."

Breslow, who replaced Bob Loux as head of the agency, and Clinger said the agency expects to get nearly $5 million a year from the Energy Department. Breslow said that money would cover the state attorney general's costs in hiring attorneys to continue a legal battle against the dump.

Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, who was told that the state's legal costs could run as much as $20 million, said there's no state general fund dollars to help cover that.

He said Gibbons should urge Nevada's congressional delegation to find a federal source for the money.