I forgot to say that Senator Alexander did a great job asking the other witnesses why they were so keen on promoting renewables but not nuclear power. To his credit, Jonathan Lash of the World Resources Institute said he was in favor of any non-carbon emitting energy source, including nuclear. John Podesta of the Center for American Progress got tied up in knots trying to argue that nuclear needs to be disadvantaged compared with renewables. I wish there’d been another pro-nuclear senator there besides Senators Inhofe and Alexander to push the point home.

Senator Alexander also showed great backbone in standing up to Senator Boxer, who strangely argued that her bill would produce 150 new nuclear plants over the coming decades. I wonder what Senator Reid and others who have consistently opposed nuclear expansion think of that. In any event, Senator Alexander stated calmly and confidently that he thought cap and trade was far too expensive for America and therefore would not support the bill. Good for him.