Energy Policy Should Focus on Climate

Good sense on energy hasn't fled Washington entirely. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has struck down the Trump administration's bewildering proposal to subsidize coal-fired power for its "resilience" in the event of big storms or natural disasters. Making coal cheaper would have damaged health and cost lives by boosting air pollution, and made energy markets less efficient to boot.

FERC also saw no "resilience" rationale for subsidizing nuclear power, and its reasoning was again correct. Yet nuclear power is indeed needed -- not for its dependability, but for its lack of greenhouse-gas emissions. Energy policy ought to support nuclear power, though in the right way and for the right reasons.