As we seek effective ways to reduce our growing and dangerous dependence on imported oil and natural gas and combat global warming, nuclear power must play an essential role. China, Japan, France, Russia and other countries are aggressively expanding their nuclear power base. President Bush recognizes the need for nuclear power, and Congress has approved financial incentives for construction of the first new, advanced U.S. nuclear power plant in this century. Yet the U.S. nuclear renaissance may be impeded in the West unless Western governors respond appropriately.

The Western Governors Association's recently adopted resolution on Western energy development was unsettling. The resolution called for 30,000 megawatts (30 GW) of "clean power generation" by 2015 made up of renewable sources, hydro, coal gasification, natural gas and cogeneration. Incredibly, nuclear power is not included in the WGA plans.

Ignoring nuclear power in a regional plan that purports to address global warming is irrational and unrealistic. Nuclear power accounts for 20 percent of the U.S. electricity and about 75 percent of U.S. emission-free power. Without nuclear power's production of clean energy, the EPA reports that CO2 emissions would be higher by 680 million metric tons a year. This is equivalent to the emissions from 130 million automobiles or about two-thirds of the entire U.S. automobile fleet.

In contrast, power plants that burn coal and natural gas that received WGA approval severely pollute the biosphere. U.S. coal plants dumped about 2 billion metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere last year, and more than 120 additional coal-fired plants are planned or under construction.

Perhaps the governors should call for a tax on carbon emissions in the WGA plan, along with a market-based cap-and-trade system for reducing emissions. Such a system has been used since 1990 and is remarkably effective in reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide that produces acid rain and smog-forming nitrogen oxides. To be even more effective in controlling greenhouse gases, utilities should begin to replace carbon-rich coal with nuclear, solar and wind power.

Presently, 16 U.S. utilities plan to build 27 (GO size) nuclear power plants. The "base-load" electricity from these plants will help meet the projected 40 percent increase in electricity demand by 2030. The Energy Information Administration says that 60 plants must be built by then if nuclear power is to maintain its current share (20 percent) of U.S. electricity production

A Gallup poll shows that a majority of Americans now support nuclear power. Many of the nation's leading environmentalists recognize that nuclear power must play a central role in the battle against global warming.

Western governors should realistically reconsider the true energy issues. Only nuclear power can provide the massive infusion of clean energy required to control global warming, limit oil and natural gas imports, and eventually provide the primary energy source required to develop a "hydrogen economy" and free us from fossil fuel dependence.

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Gary M. Sandhurst is a professor of mechanical engineering and former director of nuclear engineering at the University of Utah.