Since taking over the reins of Envirocare from Khosrow Semnani in 2005 and rebranding the company EnergySolutions, Utah’s own Steve Creamer has been waging two major campaigns: the first aims to transform the nation’s largest commercial nuclear waste dump into the world’s largest nuclear waste company; the second is a Mister Roger’s-like effort to convince the public that nuclear waste is not only harmless, but good for the neighborhood as well.

But Steve Creamer’s resume reveals a history littered with failed projects, wasted taxpayer dollars, and his personal profit trampling over public interest. Which begs the question, is he the right man for the job to lead a company with global nuclear ambitions?

Water over the Dam (not under the bridge)

On New Year’s Eve, 1988, the $23.5 million Quail Creek Dam failed, sending a 12-foot high wall of water over parts of Washington County[1]. The dam failure killed livestock, flooded homes and apartments, destroyed bridges, ripped out roads, deposited silt on farmland, and ultimately wreaked $12 million dollars in damage[2]. Steve Creamer’s engineering firm, Creamer & Noble, engineered the earthen dam[3].

Rocky Roads

Utahns remember all too well when in 1989 part of I-15 cracked, crumbled, and sent chunks of freeway flying up through drivers’ windshields. Who was behind our rocky roads? Steve Creamer. He worked as a consulting engineer and lobbied heavily for Utah to pave I-15 with Syn-crete, an experimental synthetic concrete. The project and clean-up cost Utah taxpayers nearly $3 million. Creamer was also questioned in a federal and state Grand Jury Investigation, which examined the misuse of federal funds and the misrepresentation of Syn-crete[4].

This is the place…to dump your waste

Steve Creamer made his fortune out of other states’ garbage. Over the objections of East Carbon residents, in 1992 Steve Creamer opened East Carbon Development Corp (ECDC)[5]. The mammoth dump’s twenty-nine 80-acre disposal cells served southern California cities, General Motors, Ford, and Dow Chemical, among others. Later, Creamer was accused of trying to create a monopoly on waste disposal in Utah. Other industrial contracts brought contaminated soils too hazardous for municipal landfills[6]. Residents formed Citizen Awareness Now (CAN) and vocally opposed the dump; ECDC then filed a civil lawsuit against the group. Creamer felt the good name of his company was being impugned and his right to conduct business compromised[7].

Too hot to handle

As the battle over the Private Fuel Storage (PFS) plan to bring high-level nuclear waste onto the Skull Valley Reservation raged, Creamer quietly supported an alternative proposal, termed Plan B, to store high level nuclear waste on school trust land in southern Utah[8]. As CEO of ISG Resources, Creamer hosted an insiders brainstorming meeting about Plan B. His company manufactured a cement substitute and Plan B would have created a huge demand for cement to build millions of square yards of cement pads and waste storage casts. However, Plan B undermined Governor Leavitt’s strong opposition to bringing high-level waste into the state and went head-to-head with the 71% of registered voters who opposed PFS[9].

Power Player

Despite Creamer’s engineering failures, he scores an A+ in the political arena. In 1991, Creamer was named by fellow lobbyists as one of the most powerful lobbyists in Utah[10]. In 1990, he was one of the most highly paid “hired guns” on Capitol Hill[11]. In the 2004 governor’s race, he personally contributed over $80,000 to candidates[12]. And as the CEO of EnergySolutions, he oversaw more than $189,000 in political contributions in the 2006 election cycle. His long list of influential friends and associates includes: former Governor Bangerter, Republican Party giant Joe Cannon, and businessman Larry Miller.

Dr. Strangelove, or how I learned to stop worrying and love NUCLEAR POWER

Since his bottom line depends on nuclear waste, it’s no surprise that Steve Creamer has been actively promoting the nuclear industry. But there’s no reason to believe that EnergySolutions cares any more about finding a solution to our energy needs than Envirocare cared about the environment. As a member of the American Council on Global Nuclear Competitiveness (ACGNC), he has been pushing for a national and global nuclear renaissance[13]. In January of 2007, he hired Patrick Moore, a former Greenpeace activist now funded by the Nuclear Energy Institute (a nuclear industry front group), to be the keynote speaker at EnergySolutions’ Costumer Conference in January. In March, he presented at his alma mater, Utah State University, on how nuclear power can solve global warming[14]. But as his track record shows, Steve Creamer isn’t about finding solutions, he’s about finding money. More nuclear power means more nuclear waste, which equals more money for EnergySolutions and Steve Creamer.