George Voinovich: “I rise to generally speak about the issue of energy in this country and to underscore the fact that one of the sources…”

“I rise to generally speak about the issue of energy in this country and to underscore the fact that one of the sources of energy that we really need to look at is nuclear energy. The sooner we resolve the issue of how we deal with nuclear waste, the better for this Nation. We ought to do everything in our power to accelerate the decision in terms of where that waste is going to be located if we expect to deal with not only the energy needs of our country but also with something about which many of us are concerned, and that is climate change. Nuclear power is a source of energy that does not produce greenhouse gases, and I think it is something that should be a priority for the Senate and for this Nation to resolve once and for all. My other remarks will deal with the issue of the fact that in spite of much talk and much writing, conservation and alternative fuels are not going to be able to deal with the problem we have in this Nation in terms of our energy crisis. We have that crisis because we lack a national energy policy. We haven't had one for 30 years, and it is a Republican and Democrat problem. We have a faulty deregulation law in California. We have environmental policies that have contributed to a lack of diversity and difficulties in siting new facilities, pipelines, and transmission lines. We are too reliant on foreign sources of oil, and we have inappropriately demonized nuclear power.”