The very green Sarasota Herald-Tribune editorial board in their May 13, 2008 column "Same old drill" does not want us to take our own oil out of our own land. We thought that made absolutely no sense.

Now the same editorial board does not want us, in their column "Nuclear power needs attention", to replace existing coal, oil and natural gas power plants with nuclear power plants. This not only makes no sense it is senseless.

So we can't drill for our own oil, mine our own coal and extract natural gas from off shore and Alaska reservoirs. We can't build coal fired, oil fired and natural gas fired plants because they produce green house gases, which the editorial board and environmentalists say cause global warming (go here to read about how we are entering a global cooling period). And now we can't build nuclear power plants that produce zero carbon emissions.

So what is their brilliant solution to our energy crisis? "it is the energy we don't use -- conservation -- that will buy time for renewable strategies."

Does this kind of Pollyanna statement make you want to burn your copy of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune? Well don't because it may add to your carbon footprint and we wouldn't want that would we?

Now we have not built a new nuclear power plant in over 30 years because of, you guessed it, the environmentalists, onerous government regulation, trial lawyers, and liberal media mouthpieces like the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Existing nuclear power plants need replacing and new plants using current technology need to be built. The Herald-Tribune states, "As Progress Energy explained, recent reactor designs use "fewer moving parts and more passive fail-safe cooling systems that rely on natural forces of gravity, natural circulation, etc., instead of power supplies and motor-driven components."

The Herald-Tribune does not even talk about the tremendous success of nuclear powered Navy ships in their article. There you have floating nuclear reactors on submarines and aircraft carriers, with thousands of sailors and Marines within yards of the reactors and no incidents, deaths, or accidents. What about that?

As the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) points out, "Nuclear plants are the lowest-cost producer of baseload electricity. The average production cost of 1.76 cents per kilowatt-hour includes the costs of operating and maintaining the plant, purchasing fuel and paying for the management of used fuel."

U.S. nuclear plants are well-designed, operated by trained personnel, defended against attack and prepared in the event of an emergency.

If you want to know all the details on the operations of nuclear power plants go to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission web site.

In terms of nuclear waste the NEI points out, "Under an integrated management approach, used nuclear fuel will remain stored at nuclear power plants in the near term. Eventually, the government will recycle it and place the unusable end product in a repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev.

The solutions to our short term and long term energy needs must include all forms of energy production. We must drill for our own oil and natural gas for national security reasons, not concerns about global warming. We must mine our greatest U.S. wholly owned resource - coal. We must expand clean coal technology research. We must dramatically expand our nuclear power capacity to eventually replace our current coal, oil and natural gas fired plants. And yes we should include solar and wind power in those limited areas where it makes sense.

Our nation, our economy and our way of life depends on cheap and reliable power. Let's get moving now and drill, mine and build more nuclear power plants. We must for the future of our children and grandchildren.