Chuck Muth: Why Loux and the Nuclear Waste Office should leave together

Bob Loux, executive director of the Nuclear Waste Project Office (NWPO), was recently caught with his sticky little fingers in the cookie jar. Turns out the man has been giving himself a lot more in pay raises than anyone knew about or approved. This isn't an unsubstantiated allegation, mind you. Loux admitted to this malfeasance in office on Sept. 9 at a meeting of the Interim Finance Committee where he asked the Legislature to cover a half-million dollar shortfall in his budget due to his actions.

And yet here we are, more than two weeks later, and Bob Loux is still, amazingly, in office. He hasn't had the decency to resign in disgrace and slink off into the sunset.

Apparently only the Nuclear Projects Commission " coincidentally chaired by former Nevada Sen. Dick Bryan, who originally hired Loux for this job " can fire Loux and make him go away. But Bryan, clearly conflicted in the matter, can't even bring himself to call for Loux to resign. Which in itself is reason enough for the Legislature to pull the commission's funding and eliminate the entire office altogether.

The NWPO has been as intellectually dishonest in the public policy debate over Yucca Mountain as Bob Loux has been in jacking up his salary to well over $150,000-a-year without telling anyone. That neither Dick Bryan nor any member of Nevada's congressional delegation has yet to call for Bob Loux's head over this matter calls into question the very integrity of the state's opposition to Yucca Mountain. If these folks will look the other way on something as serious as ripping off taxpayers, do you really think they'd raise a stink over Loux providing false or misleading information to Nevada's citizens about the Yucca project? Hardly.

For example, one of the key opposition points constantly hammered home by Loux and the NWPO is how dangerous it is to transport nuclear waste across the country on its way to Yucca Mountain. Fine. Yes, it is potentially dangerous. However, what they aren't telling Nevadans is that nuclear waste is and has been shipped safely all over the country for years. Or that it is potentially far more dangerous to ship other substances such as chlorine gas via the rails, something also done every day.

Equally dishonest is the habit of mislabeling anyone who merely suggests we have a more open, neutral discussion of the repository as "pro-Yucca" in an effort to demean, belittle, denigrate and demonize the person. I know this from a little first-hand experience.

The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) was a sponsor at a public policy conference my organization co-hosted in Las Vegas last weekend where a discussion of nuclear energy was a workshop topic. NEI donated a mere $5,000 for the tote bags and name badges that were handed out to attendees. And yet this was reported as my being "backed" by pro-Yucca forces, suggesting my opinion was bought and paid for by some tote bags and name badges. Puh-lease.

Meanwhile, over the years Bob Loux has personally and directly been paid almost $2 MILLION in salary and benefits to oppose Yucca Mountain. Funny how they never report that Loux is "backed" by anti-Yucca forces or that his opinion is bought and paid for, isn't it?

Loux and the NWPO also constantly tell us the notion that there might be benefits available to Nevada in exchange for hosting the repository is a "myth." But a couple months ago an NEI representative said there might be a billion dollars worth of benefits available each year. Hello? Was he serious? Exactly what might those benefits be? No one knows because no one asked. Everyone's too afraid of being slapped down by Loux and the NWPO. Is this the way an important public policy issue with such serious ramifications should be handled?

So yes, Bob Loux should go for being absolutely corrupted by the absolute power he abused for his own self-enrichment at the NWPO. But the NWPO should go, as well, for committing an even more egregious crime: stifling free speech. The sooner, the better.

- Chuck Muth, of Carson City, is president and CEO of Citizen Outreach and a political blogger. Read his views Fridays on the Appeal Opinion page or visit www.muthstruths.com. You can e-mail him at chuck@chuckmuth.com