Sen. Harry Reid: Getting closer to a clean, secure future for Nevada

Hope and optimism seem difficult to come by during these hard economic times, but I feel a good deal of both for Nevada's future after a couple of major recent announcements.

Both the news of NV Energy's decision to postpone building a new coal plant near Ely and President Barack Obama's move to severely slash the budget for the proposed Yucca Mountain dump bring our state much closer to economic security and long-term health. The jobs Nevada needs will come through clean energy.

In making this sound business decision, NV Energy recognizes the future of energy in our state resides in clean renewable energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal. Dirty unstable energy sources pollute our environment and weaken our economic strength as they rise sharply in cost, as coal has in recent years.

The best way to create thousands of good-paying Nevada jobs that cannot be outsourced is through clean energy, and Nevada has a wealth of it. We'll do it by building transmission lines and generating centers, by maintaining the infrastructure we create to develop and deliver this energy to the country and by employing people to improve the energy efficiency of buildings through weatherization and other improvements.

I obtained billions of dollars for clean energy through the economic recovery package, and many millions will come to Nevada. We can diversify our state's economy through clean energy and the jobs it brings to all of Nevada. Best of all, these jobs will be in areas of the state that need them most.

In fact, I introduced legislation in Congress to overhaul how energy is delivered in our country. This bill could be the key to getting started on building new transmission lines in Nevada in the near future. Clean energy is not some far-off thought; it is here now and we must seize on our opportunity before other states and countries do the same.

President Obama's decision to fund Yucca Mountain at an absolutely minimal level in his first budget represents another critical step in ending the proposed nuclear waste dump. There is no mistaking that this is our most significant victory to date in our battle to protect Nevada from becoming the country's toxic wasteland.

Drawing this fight to a close would allow us to focus fully on our clean energy future. There will be no more calls to discuss unrealistic hypothetical scenarios like mortgaging our health and safety to let America dump its radioactive trash in our backyard.

Nevadans are independent thinkers with a pioneering spirit that demands we step into the future of clean energy. The events of the past month bring us that much closer to taking that step and I could not be more excited about where renewable energy can take our great state.

- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is the Senate majority leader.