Photo/Dennis Myers
Sen. Kelvin Atkinson speaks in a legislative hallway with Assemblymember David Bobzien, right, and journalist Jon Ralston about Senate Bill 123.
Chamber supports school funding The Reno Sparks Chamber of Commerce sent this message to its members: “Assembly Bill 46 would provide a sustainable funding source for the school district to continue to maintain and repair the critical systems that keep our community’s 93 schools open, safe, and functional for our children. With a half-billion dollars in unfunded needs, the school district needs funding to pay for the maintenance and repair projects that many of us may not think about when we think about education (like heating and ventilation systems, plumbing, roofing, and pavement). Right now, the school district has no sustainable funding source to continue to pay for these projects. ... With less than 30 days left in the 2013 session, we need to let our legislators and the governor know why we support this important piece of legislation.”
Nuclear rhetoric Nye County Commissioner Dan Schinhofen called U.S. Sen. Harry Reid a hypocrite for winking at the storage of 403 canisters containing enriched uranium in a landfill at the Nevada Test Site (now called the Nevada National Security Site). The canisters came from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Schinhofen is a supporter of the proposed waste dump for high level nuclear wastes at Yucca Mountain, which Reid opposes. “What we’re concerned with is the sheer hypocrisy of Sen. Reid, who said Yucca Mountain isn’t safe but is OK with putting this fissile material 40 feet underground,” Schinhofen told a public meeting. “The hypocrisy stinks.” Reid’s office gave a statement to the Las Vegas Review Journal: “This is not bomb grade material. The [Nye] County Commission should understand the difference between 403 canisters and 70,000 tons.”
Reno letter published In a letter to the editor of the Nation magazine, reacting to a previous article about how decades of changes in rape law have not changed cultural attitudes, an unnamed Reno resident wrote in part: “I have just learned that my 18-year-old grandniece was raped by a college football player at a party recently. No one is supposed to know about this assault—it’s a secret, a big secret kept by her family because of shame. “The attacker has been charged. My niece had to leave college because she couldn’t hold up under the harassment of the perpetrator’s teammates and others because she pressed charges. She is recovering at home without support from other family and friends because of the ‘no talk’ rule. The rape was devastating, but barring friends and family from giving support is devastating as well. The adage ‘Your secrets keep you sick’ applies here and could have the most severe consequence: suicide. Receiving love and care outside the immediate family would promote her processing this violation and is imperative for her healing. I believe our ‘jock’ culture is to blame, along with the media’s portrayal of women as toys to be used for the glory of men and their supremacy.”
Powers that be Public shut out of utility legislation, putting ratepayers at risk An effort at the Nevada Legislature to shield NVEnergy from utility regulation prompted a surge of consumer by activism. Dennis Myers The drama got underway on April 3 when the corporation announced that it will close its environmentunfriendly coal-fired plants, starting with Reid Gardner in the south next year, and finishing with its northern plant at Valmy in 2025. While basking in the favorable publicity from that announcement, NVEnergy said it would offer an amendment to Senate Bill 123 to help it accomplish the phase-out of coal.
“I think that people have to understand that the legislative process is a negotiating process.” sen. Kelvin Atkinson Clark County Democrat
Pleased as punch At the Nevada Legislature, an amendment has been attached to a bill creating a cultural endowment in Nevada. The amendment reads, “The traditional Basque drink known as the Picon Punch is hereby designated as the official state drink of the State of Nevada.”
—Dennis Myers
8 | RN&R |
MAY 23, 2013
That raised suspicions because some lawmakers said there was no need for legislation in order for NVEnergy to go ahead with its plans (“Bad days in Newcastle,” RN&R, April 18). S.B. 123, sponsored by Sen. Kelvin Atkinson, was a measure intended to foster renewable energy. Atkinson consented to the amendment. The public has never been permitted to comment on the amendment, only on
the original bill. But selected groups were permitted to testify. Objections to the amendment included a hold-harmless clause for shareholders but no protection for ratepayers, plus a balloon payment years down the road that could also threaten ratepayers. And critics said the bill would circumvent the public utilities regulatory process. A flyer circulated by NVEnergy argued that its amendment would “retire 800 MW of company-owned coal-fired generating plants, acquire or construct 550 MW of capacity to replace the retired … plants, acquire or construct 50 MW or renewable facilities, issue requests for 300 MW or renewable energy, and propose rate mitigation under certain circumstances.” NVEnergy called the initiative embodied by its amendment “Nvision.” (This is also the name of a Nevada state wellness program, a Sparks/Las Vegas home improvement company, a Grass Valley television equipment corporation, and a chain of laser surgery clinics.) The dispute between NVEnergy and its critics did not seem to catch fire, even after legislators expressed their concern and the Las Vegas Sun reported on April 8 that NVEnergy “can accomplish [the coal switch] through existing regulation; a change in state law isn’t necessary. In the meantime, there was another amendment being worked on and
circulated among players that set off further alarm bells because it was considered much worse than the original amendment. That was when “people started coming out of the woodwork on this thing” to fight the measure, said one lobbyist. Among those alarmed was Tim Hay, former state consumer advocate. (The consumer advocate post represents the public before the Public Utilities Commission.) Hay and others quickly formed and incorporated a new organization, the Nevada Consumer Protection Alliance. Hay asked his former boss, Frankie Sue Del Papa, to speak out on the amendment, which she did. Del Papa’s stature as a former Nevada attorney general and secretary of state kicked the issue to a new level in the legislative halls—though most journalism entities continued to ignore it. That was particularly surprising because of the newsworthy wording of the amendment, such as language permitting the state Public Utilities Commission to act only “so long as there is no adverse impact on the utility shareholders”—an astonishing gift to the corporation. “I see this as a consumer protection issue,” Del Papa said. “Never before has a bill been introduced that has such guarantees to shareholders.” Atkinson was distressed by the controversy, and felt blindsided by fellow Democrat Del Papa failing to give him a heads-up that she was entering the fray. “My own party, and I have to read about it in the paper?” he said. Lobbyist Marlene Lockard, who by default—other figures wanting to stay out of the legislative building— became the principal lobbyist against the amendment, said it was her fault that Atkinson had not known about the formation of the Alliance or Del Papa’s participation. “I apologized, because I should have told him this Alliance had formed prior to it being in the press.” Atkinson said he was untroubled by the NVEnergy amendment not being submitted as a stand-alone bill instead of as an amendment, and that he did not support any legislation that would circumvent the regulatory process. “If we start allowing them to do that, we’re all in a lot of trouble,” he said. After hearings by the Senate energy and finance committees, the bill passed the Senate. During those committees’ proceedings there was no public comment on the amendment. Atkinson predicted that at a May 17 meeting of the Assembly Commerce
