Reid vows to block possible energy pick

["Mercado, Don" <don.mercado@lmco.com>]

Here's how we can make a difference. Call/write/email Bush and urge him to
appoint J. Bennett Johnson.

> December 20, 2000
> Las Vegas Review-Journal
>  
>  YUCCA MOUNTAIN: Reid vows to block possible energy pick
>  Louisiana Democrat proponent of nuclear power industry
>  
>  
>  DONREY WASHINGTON BUREAU
>  
>  
>  WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday he would try to block
> 
>  Senate confirmation of J. Bennett Johnston, the former Louisiana senator
> and 
>  nuclear power champion who is being mentioned as a possible energy
> secretary 
>  under incoming President George W. Bush.
>  
>  When Reid saw Johnston mentioned in a newspaper report as a possible
> member 
>  of the Bush Cabinet, "the name leaped out so hard I couldn't wait to get
> to 
>  the office this morning to call him to see if this was a serious matter."
>  
>  "He told me he was thinking about it," Reid recalled. "I told him, `I
> like 
>  you a lot, but I'm going to do everything I can to prevent it.' "
>  
>  Johnston, 68, a Democrat who served in the Senate from 1973 to 1996, was 
>  closely associated with energy interests and was the major booster of
> plans 
>  to locate a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles
> northwest 
>  of Nevada.
>  
>  As chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, he was 
>  considered the engine behind what came to be known as the 1987 "Screw 
>  Nevada" bill that designated Yucca Mountain as the only site the
> government 
>  would study for a repository.
>  
>  Reid said he put his staff to work on the matter, put in calls to other 
>  lawmakers and began Tuesday to build a coalition of environmentalists who
> 
>  share his view of Johnston.
>  
>  "We want to nip this one in the bud," Reid said.
>  
>  "I'm very distressed to hear that Bennett Johnston is a candidate for
> energy 
>  secretary. It would be a declaration of war on the environment and 
>  environmentalists across the country," said Michael Mariotte, executive 
>  director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service.
>  
>  Johnston is partner of a Washington lobbying firm, Johnston and
> Associates, 
>  whose clients include the Nuclear Energy Institute, Entergy Corp., SBC 
>  Communications, Northrop Grumman and the University of New Orleans, 
>  according to Washington Representatives, a lobbyist guidebook.
>  
>  Johnston did not respond to calls for comment on Tuesday.
>  
>  Bush has said he plans to have Democrats in his Cabinet, and last week 
>  discussed the energy post with Sen. John Breaux, D-La. Breaux turned him 
>  down but recommended Johnston, according to the New Orleans
> Times-Picayune.
>  
>  "If (Bush) is responding by appointing Bennett Johnston, we should all be
> 
>  afraid," Reid said.
>  
>  Others who have been mentioned as possible energy secretaries include
> Sen. 
>  Slade Gorton, R-Wash., who was defeated for re-election last month, and 
>  Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles, a Democrat who supports drilling in the Arctic 
>  National Wildlife Refuge.
>  
>  But on a radio talk show on Tuesday, Knowles laughed at the idea and said
> he 
>  has plenty of work to do in Alaska, according to his spokesman Bob King. 
>  Knowles said on the radio program he had not been contacted by the Bush 
>  transition team.
>  
>  Reid said he believed Gorton is not interested in the job.
>  
>  Another person mentioned was Don Evans, a Bush friend, his presidential 
>  campaign manager and chief executive of Tom Brown Inc., a Denver-based
> oil 
>  and gas company with an office in Midland, Texas. But Evans was expected
> to 
>  be named head of the Commerce Department.
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  This story is located at:
>  http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2000/Dec-20-Wed-2000/news/15073682.html 
> 
> 
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