Global warming and other environmental issues, along with tough environmental management will force excessive burdens on utilities and consumers alike, he said.

Lyash said that concentrations of carbon dioxide are unquestionably higher at present than they were twenty, fifty, one hundred years ago.

Addressing energy needs and environmental concerns is a matter of economic necessity and national security, Lyash said.

Lyash continued that, alternative sources like wind, geothermal, and solar will sooner or later be part of our energy mix, although it will require a higher level of technology than that currently available. The short-term expectations are lower than the long-term, he said.

Nuclear power provides approximately twenty percent of the United State's electricity, this will need to double in the not too distant future to meet concerns regarding Greenhouse Gases, Lyash said.

Coal and gas fired plants emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, nuclear plants don't. Lyash said nuclear plants are a solution for generating clean, emission-free electricity.

Progress Energy said last month construction will be postponed for as long as two years, the company said the Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission refused to approve work on the foundation before issuance of the operating and construction license. Progress Energy said that they couldn't even begin excavation without the license.

Progress Energy says that if the two reactors are constructed it will close two coal fired plants at Crystal River. The two reactors will produce more electricity than the two plants and produce no carbon dioxide, Lyash said.

Anti-nuclear organizations, like Nuclear Information and Resource Service, say sources like wind,geothermal and solar provide cheaper, faster, cleaner and safer approach for lowering amounts of greenhouse emissions than nuclear.

Lyash said that these alternative fuels should make up approximately twenty percent of the United State's energy mix. We have to support a technology that would capture the carbon in coal and process it, we can't really eliminate coal, but we may possibly gain the technology needed to extract the harmful gases in the emissions from coal. This may be a possibility in the future.