So why is President Obama urging Congress to approve "cap and trade" - specifically, the bill introduced by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.? Especially when, in an ironic twist, cap and trade would wreak economic havoc? Under the Kerry-Lieberman bill (the 987-page "American Power Act") levels of carbon-dioxide emissions would supposedly drop, by 2050, to 80 percent below what they were in 2005. How? By increasing energy prices.
America needs a clean, safe, and sustainable energy source. Nuclear power could be part of the solution with the right set of free-market reforms. Congress, the nuclear industry, and many Americans agree that reform of U.S. nuclear policies is necessary, but cannot agree on what those reforms should look like. The nuclear provision in the Senate's new Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act is a nice nod to nuclear power, but leaves the waters muddied.