BOISE, Idaho (AP) _ The president and CEO of a Boise-based
hazardous-waste services company says a newly formed group called
Citizens for a Clean Idaho and a consulting company called kosphre
are actually fronts for a competitor.

Steve Romano says Rexburg businessman Steve Loosli and his group
are being clandestinely backed by Utah-based EnergySolutions
because that company wants to protect its monopoly on low-level
nuclear waste storage.

The two companies are competitors for storing low-level nuclear
waste, and the Clean Idaho group has started a campaign to prevent
American Ecology from bringing the waste to a burial facility in
Owyhee County in southwest Idaho.

Romano last week filed a complaint with the Idaho secretary of
state, saying that Loosli's lobbyist, Harold ``Pete'' Skamser, was
misrepresenting his employer as a nonprofit.

EnergySolutions has declined to answer questions about the
issue, the Idaho Statesman reported.

Loosli says he hasn't been hired by EnergySolutions.

___

Information from: Idaho Statesman, http://www.idahostatesman.com

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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