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Jul. 26, 2007
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Republican senator challenges Clinton's opposition to Yucca

By STEVE TETREAULT
STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU

More about Yucca Mountain

Hillary Clinton
Scheduling conflict cited

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."

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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.

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Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: Allen Stepro wrote on November 03, 2007 06:34 PM: I would have my doubts that the president would even know the meaning of these words engineering, nuclear physics, and geology I know he could not pronounce them. Here is sample "The best place for the facts to be done is by somebody who's spending time investigating it" WHAT. At least those two have a general knowledge. I would dare to say that Bush don't even know where Yucca Mountain is located Allen Stepro Msgt USMC Ret. Allen Stepro wrote on November 03, 2007 06:12 PM: I could not fine That you or the Hill issued a correction. I would not expect one from the Republican Inhofe after all they are a do nothing part of the government. Hopfuly all will be replaced in 2008. An article in the November 1 print edition of The Hill falsely claimed that "Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) skipped an Environment and Public Works Committee hearing Wednesday [October 31] that she called for earlier this year." The article continued, "But if Clinton was seeking answers from administration officials [on the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, which Clinton opposes] she was not doing it from the committee dais. She was nowhere to be seen at Wednesday's hearing." In fact, Clinton was present at the October 31 committee hearing, where she stated her opposition to the Yucca Mountain proposal and questioned administration officials. Transcript and video from the hearing is available on Clinton's Senate website, as well as on the Environment and Public Works Senate Committee website. The article appears to have been removed from The Hill website, but I could not fine That you or the Hill issued a correction. Allen Stepro Msgt USMC Ret. Mike wrote on July 26, 2007 04:25 PM: Nice to know that Hillary Clinton and Senator Reid have PHD's in engineering, nuclear physics, and geology and have been studying the proposed repository for the past 30 years. Oh that's right, they don't, and they haven't. Ted wrote on July 26, 2007 01:41 PM: Tell me when I can come over and turn off your power for 2 hours every day, the amount powered by nuclear. Tell people in Illinois, where it's 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity, when we can shut their AC off for 12 hours a day. Tell China and India they don't have a right to electricity-- or tell them to keep polluting our air with coal plants. I live in Las Vegas. I'd be far happier sitting in traffic next to a nuclear shipment than a chlorine tanker. Check your facts and you would agree. And just because you don't care about a nuclear-powered Navy, doesn't mean you have not greatly benefited. Get real, people, there is no free lunch. Jason wrote on July 26, 2007 01:16 PM: We would do just fine without nuclear power. I wonder if Ted lives anywhere near that mess and if he did, he would blame the cancer on something else? Who cares about a nuclear powered Navy. When have we ever needed such a wasteful thing. Yucca isn't about anything but payback to a fat, over-rich nuke industry-which Ted probably owns stock in while hiding behind fat, American patriotism... Roger wrote on July 26, 2007 01:09 PM: I say we bury it in Inhofe's backyard so HIS pathetic family can become irradiated. That would take his bad Republican genes out of the gene pool... Greg McFarlane wrote on July 26, 2007 09:37 AM: Yucca Mountain is purely a theoretical threat, not an actual threat. No one has ever died transporting or storing nuclear waste in this country. Hundreds, even thousands, have died mining coal and transporting oil and gas. But it's fun to stay uninformed and scared, isn't it, Kim T.? Ted wrote on July 26, 2007 08:51 AM: Yet Kim T. happily uses electricity generated by nuclear plants in the Western U.S. every day, she's breathing less sulphur and CO because of those nuclear plants, and she and the entire country has benefitted from a nuclear-powered Navy. The NIMBY argument just doesn't fly. Yucca Mountain is the small price we pay for modern life. I'd rather have the waste in a mountain than in my lungs. bruce wrote on July 26, 2007 08:44 AM: if hillary is in nevada she is against yucca mt.some place else she might be for it.she learned that from bill.she won;t even admit she's a liberal.demecrats are in power thay could do something about yucca mt thay haven't done anything else.come on harry Kim T. wrote on July 26, 2007 07:11 AM: Let that Okie find some dust bowl in HIS home state to bury the stuff in... We don't want it in Nevada!