Domenici promotes uranium

By Jim Maniaci
Cibola County Bureau

Pete Domenici

GRANTS — Although he wants to go down in New Mexico history as the senator who brought America energy independence, Republican Pete Domenici's quick trip to Grants on Tuesday could be called the uranium senator coming to the uranium capital of North America.

He told an audience of about 60 people, who were at La Ventana Steak House for a joint Grants-Milan Rotary Club and Grants-Cibola County Chamber of Commerce lunch, that a nuclear energy renaissance is occurring across the U.S., and it brings positive implications to New Mexico, America and the world.

Domenici indicated, however, that America must regain its previous global supremacy in science and technology. And it will cost about $7 billion a year "to educate teachers to teach our kids who are hungry for this kind of learning." The $350 million in federal aid to the states each year would be from the lowest grades of elementary school to the senior year of high school.

He also said, "The last few years have marked a real turning point for those of use who believe that nuclear energy should play a larger role in our nation's energy future. The fact is that nuclear energy is also clean energy, totally free of emissions. That makes it not only essential to providing affordable and reliable energy, but also critical in the fight to reduce carbon emissions."

Domenici chairs the Senate's Energy-Natural Resources Committee.

With a streamlined licensing approval process, nuclear power plants no longer take a generation before they can start producing electricity. He said he expects about 25 new plants to be licensed in the next 20 years in America. But that pales in comparison to the exploding billion-plus populations of China and India with their matching explosive demand for electricity, oil and gasoline. China alone is building nuclear-powered generating stations at almost double the expected U.S. rate, he indicated.

Not wanting to leave all his eggs in one basket, the senator said he will continue to push for oil production in the Gulf of Mexico with his plan to explore all of the continental shelf in an environmentally safe way. His bill, adopted by the Senate with strong support in both parties, would add 1.26 billion barrels of oil and 5.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. This would heat and cool nearly six million homes for 15 years.

Domenici opposes America being dependent upon any one segment of the power industry, especially if it is outside the country and subject to influences which could be detrimental to U.S. interests. In introducing him, Rotarian and chamber-Cibola Communities Economic Development Foundation manager Star Gonzales said atomic power plants produce one-fifth of the country's electricity.

In a brief interview later, he said, "It's way too early to tell" if uranium mining on Mount Taylor would be what he would consider desecration of what the Navajo people consider one of their four traditional boundary mountains.

The senator also said, after a staff member reminded him that it still is in draft form, that the San Juan River Settlement Act important to the Farmington area as well as the Navajo Nation has had its costs refined by the Senate's lawyers. "Legislative finance counsel is redrawing it to change it to save some money, and we're seeing if those are acceptable," he explained.

Domenici continued, "Nothing would please me more than to get it done so we can have a water project to Gallup across the Indian reservation. It's one of my dreams, but it may fall apart if we can't find the money ... and I'm not sure we can."

The senator said he didn't have knowledge about an expanded western energy corridor forcing more Navajos to relocate as happened with the Navajo-Hopi Relocation Act.

He has served as one of the state's senators in Washington, D.C., for 34 years and said he will run for re-election in November 2008 for another six years. First elected in 1972, he won a re-election for the fifth time in a row in November 2002. He said only poor health would change his mind and right now he's in good health.

To contact reporter Jim Maniaci in Grants, telephone 285-6184 or (505) 870-7775 (cellular).