I'm writing from Washington state today, where the Energy Institute's 2010 Energy Reality Tour continues.   Karen Harbert just wrapped up a speech to over 300 attendees at the 2010 Women in Nuclear conference, which brings together women from across the country who work in the nuclear industry.  It was certainly gratifying to see so many woman committed to delivering clean, emissions free nuclear power to communities from coast to coast.

With new nuclear build well underway, it is vitally important that we continue this momentum.   Proposals for dozens of new nuclear plants have been submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and real capital is now being invested to make these plants a reality.

It has taken the nuclear industry decades to recover from the slowdown of the 1980s.   As a result, plans for expansion were shelved.  America is paying the price for those shortsighted decisions now, as the renewed focus on reducing carbon emissions has left us with few options to generate clean baseload electricity.

The mistakes from that period could be repeating themselves, as the administration has implemented a de facto blanket moratorium on offshore oil and gas exploration in the wake of the Deepwater Horizons tragedy.  That is a subject that Karen will be addressing later today with the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, and at the Energy Reality Tour's next two stops, in Juneau and Anchorage later this week.

Stay tuned!