McCain, in Nevada, renews nuclear call
He proposed 45 power plants by 2030, part of his strategy for easing the nation's energy crisis.
LAS VEGAS - After fending off ocean-drilling critics in California, Sen. John McCain yesterday stiff-armed opponents of a Nevada nuclear-waste repository as he outlined ways to resolve the nation's energy crisis while seeking votes in another swing state.
The Republican presidential candidate, speaking at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, reiterated his call for building 45 nuclear-power plants by 2030 - and a total of 100 at some point beyond that. Despite the waste they might generate, McCain said, they are part of a comprehensive strategy he has taken to calling the "Lexington Project," for the Revolutionary War site.
McCain did not repeat his recent suggestion that the waste site at Yucca Mountain may be rendered unnecessary if the world can agree on a location for a foreign repository. That comment in Texas drew cries of disbelief from critics who accused him of pandering after long supporting Yucca.
Aides say the policies conform with the Arizona senator's straight-talk reputation and contrast with opposition from Democratic rival Barack Obama, whom they have taken to calling "Dr. No."
"The experience of nations across Europe and Asia has shown that nuclear energy is efficient. It is safe, it is proven, and it is essential to America's energy future," McCain said during his speech. "We will need to recover all the knowledge and skills that have been lost over three stagnant decades in a highly technical field. As Nevadans are well aware, we will need to solve complex problems of moving and storing materials that will always need safeguarding."
It is unclear the degree to which the Yucca controversy moves votes in this fast-growing state. Obama opened himself to similar criticism this week when he suggested that nuclear power had to be explored as the nation copes with record gas prices.
But McCain is fighting a Democratic tide in Nevada. In 2004, when President Bush narrowly beat Democrat John Kerry, the state had 358,000 registered Republicans to 348,000 Democrats. Now, it has 438,000 Democrats and 388,000 Republicans, thanks to intense voter-registration drives before party caucuses last winter.
Republicans have also been plagued by state-party chaos and personal problems involving their nominal leader, Gov. Jim Gibbons. He filed for divorce this month and moved out of the governor's mansion. This week he apologized for sending 860 text messages through a state-owned cell phone to the estranged wife of a Reno doctor.
"This is the first time - really in about 20 years - that the Democrats have had this large registration lead over the Republicans," said Eric Herzik, a registered Republican who is a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. "It's reflective of better organization by the Democrats. It's reflective of really what may be motivation by the Democrats to, as they say, 'turn Nevada blue.' "
Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid, son of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), said Obama's plan to invest $150 billion in alternative energy resources appeals to Nevadans. "We have more sunshine than we know what to do with," the commissioner said.
McCain also has made solar power, as well as the development of electric cars and the use of alcohol-based fuels such as ethanol, part of his Lexington Project.