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Good afternoon. I'm pleased to have this opportunity to participate in a panel discussion on energy and the environment.

Before the United Nations climate conference in Kyoto in 1997, few governments acknowledged nuclear energy's role in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.

Now, policymakers all over the world are starting to recognize this fact.

• In Washington early last year, Under Secretary of State Stuart Eizenstadt told a Senate committee that "nuclear energy has a very real role to play" in addressing the climate change issue.
• The World Energy Council went a step further. At the World Energy Congress in Houston last September, the council said nuclear energy "should play a major role" in electricity generation and in strategies to combat global warming.
• Some of the strongest words we've heard came from Senator Pete Domenici. In a November speech, he said "maintaining and even expanding our reliance on nuclear energy will be essential to maintain progress in clean air."

Nuclear energy has played an important role in helping to avoid air pollution for more than 30 years. That's because generating electricity with nuclear energy is essentially emission free.

Some of you may remember the oil embargoes and natural gas supply and price problems of the 1970s.