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Casino Industry Role Debated in Yucca Nuclear Waste Issue

LAS VEGAS – Jan. 11, 2002 -- The casino industry has either been a leading voice in the battle to defeat the plan to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain or has played a relatively benign role in the debate.

The assessment depends upon the person delivering the analysis.

To hear MGM Mirage Senior Vice President Alan Feldman tell it, casino bosses have battled for years to persuade top congressional leaders to kill the plan, which Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced his support for on Thursday.

Any time they have met with House and Senate members to discuss tax, regulatory or other issues they also have discussed the threat posed by Yucca, Feldman noted.

"It makes me cross eyed when I hear the gaming industry hasn't been anywhere on this," he said. "I haven't seen a mining industry lobbyist in Washington speaking out on this. I haven't seen anyone from the development community, the retail association. It's not a casino issue; it's a Nevada issue.

"I've heard this (criticism of the industry), but only from people not involved in the debate."

Yet, others question the aggressiveness of Nevada's No. 1 employer in working to defeat the siting of the waste dump 80 miles north of Las Vegas.

One industry observer said that for years, casino bosses have been reluctant to speak out on the issue, fearing that to do so would annoy members of Congress, scare away tourists and create a self-fulfilling prophecy, said a casino industry observer.

"They don't want to antagonize Democrats or Republicans in Washington. They don't want to antagonize any congressional people in other states," said Bill Thompson, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor who studies the daily workings of the casino industry.

Gaming executives became something of a Capitol Hill power during the 1990s, donating millions of dollars to the campaigns of some of the nation's most powerful political figures.

They lobbied against federal oversight and taxation of the industry, and worked to weaken the legal standing of the federal gambling commission.

Their support helped elevate Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., to the No. 2 position in the Senate Democratic leadership and aided the efforts of Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., to gain a seat on the House Ways and Means Committee.

To push for a defeat of the Yucca plan would have squandered much of that political capital, Thompson argued.

Even Frank Fahrenkopf Jr., the casino industry's chief Washington, D.C., lobbyist and a former head of the Republican National Committee did not lobby on the issue.

The reason: The board of his American Gaming Association never authorized him to do so.

MGM Mirage's Feldman argues that the reason for the AGA's relative silence on the issue was simple. The organization represents varied interests from throughout the country.

But no matter the setting, Feldman said, Yucca was discussed whenever Fahrenkopf and his AGA aides arranged meetings between Nevada casino executives and congressional leaders.

The decision to store waste at Yucca could mobilize a community that by many measures has been politically apathetic, observers agreed.

With thousands of new residents moving in monthly to the region, many newcomers feel little social or political connection to the region, depressing political activity.

Yet now there is a very clear threat, which makes for an effective organizing tool as Nevadans fight to defeat the plan as it moves through the political and legal processes, said Stephen Cloobeck, a Las Vegas timeshare developer who has been one of the more vocal opponents of the nuclear dump.

"I would think the folks in this community will now rally together like they always do to solve this issue," Cloobeck said.

The uncertain relationship between the issue and corporate activism was reflected in the Thursday comments of Station Casinos Chief Financial Officer Glenn Christenson.

Last year, Gov. Kenny Guinn called on Nevada companies to contribute money for a national media campaign aimed at publicizing Yucca's safety threats. But Christenson said the state's top elected official has yet to solicit a contribution from Station.

"If the governor asked us to make a contribution, I'm sure we would," Christenson said.

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