As the economy teeters, jobs are lost, and energy costs rise, the government threatens to aggravate these conditions by imposing cutbacks in greenhouse gas emissions. The outlook could be bleak.

Yet there's hope. Growth can be stimulated, thousands of new jobs created and energy costs controlled while even meeting Draconian reductions in greenhouse gases, if reduce them we must.

The solution doesn't require ballyhooed "green technology" from promising but undeveloped, unproven devices or from fanciful, tax-subsidized industries. It doesn't involve unacceptable risks to the environment or to human health. And it even comports with the current irrational insistence that greenhouse gases must be reduced.

The answer is to build more nuclear power plants.

"Nuclear technology can help to meet America's growing demand for reliable, clean, affordable electricity," writes Jack Spencer, research fellow in nuclear energy at the Heritage Foundation.

Like the so-called green alternatives of solar and wind power, nuclear power generates no significant CO2 emissions. Unlike solar and wind, nuclear power is a proven, cost-effective energy source already employed on a huge scale worldwide. Contrary to scary warnings, there have been zero deaths from commercial nuclear power leaks or waste storage in the United States, Spencer reports.

The 33 nuclear reactors under construction, mostly in Russia and Asia, will add to the 439 existing plants worldwide. Yet in the U.S. a new reactor hasn't been ordered since the mid-1970s. As a result, says Spencer, the nation "does not have the industrial infrastructure to build even one reactor today," lacking large forging production, heavy machinery, specialized piping and mining fuel services.

But all these are proven technologies that, once given a green light, can bring online cost-effective nuclear plants. There are countless jobs inherent in manufacturing these production tools, as there are construction jobs in building the requisite infrastructure.

The problem is, government stands in the way.

Operating nuclear plants is far less expensive than other power-generating facilities, according to Ross Wingo and H. Sterling Burnett of the National Center for Policy Analysis. Moreover, existing reactors can be even more efficient when upgraded to increase their output by as much as 20 percent.

Demand for electrical energy will increase as developing nations grow. That directly conflicts with the call to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which would roll back existing power plant production from coal and oil-generated facilities. Clamping down on greenhouse gas emissions will leave the nation short of meeting growing power demands, and result in even higher prices.

"Nuclear energy has many benefits," Wingo and Burnett conclude. "It is reliable, recyclable, clean, sustainable and domestically produced. As such, it uniquely satisfies the otherwise conflicting demands burdening the American power industry."

If government expedites nuclear power plant approvals it would unleash a wealth of well-paying manufacturing and construction jobs to stimulate economic growth while simultaneously meeting growing demand for energy.