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Will the November 4, 2008, election doom the future of Nevada? That sounds ominous, I know, but this election could be a make-or-break moment in history for the Yucca Mountain Project. This is the ill-conceived plan to bury nuclear waste in Nevada's Yucca Mountain. Everyone in this state knows the problems inherent in this project and should be on alert. But also this should serve as a "heads-up" to everyone in the country.

Even before George W. Bush can settle into his new house in Dallas, his legacy on the environment is being dismantled by his replacement in the White House. In less than two months, President Obama has put on hold Bush's plans for power-plant pollution, offshore oil drilling, nuclear waste storage and endangered species. THE PRESIDENT'S AGENDA: What's been done, what lies ahead The Obama team has rolled out policies Bush officials delayed, such as requiring higher energy efficiency from appliances. Such moves have significant impacts and not just on the environment. They could affect electric bills, gas prices and the time it takes to build highways, dams and bridges.

Compared to, say, the pitched battles over Yucca mountain, the storage of toxic fly ash produced by coal-fired plants has gotten virtually no coverage, even though it's arguably a far, far bigger health and safety risk. So I suppose one upside-if you can even call it that-of the recent (and massive) ash-spill disasters in Tennessee and Alabama is that we're starting to see more investigations like this one, by Shaila Dewan of The New York Times: The coal ash pond that ruptured and sent a billion gallons of toxic sludge across 300 acres of East Tennessee last month was only one of more than 1,300 similar dumps across the United States-most of them unregulated and unmonitored-that contain billions more gallons of fly ash and other byproducts of burning coal.

With research, development and implementation of alternative and renewable energy sources pushed to the front-burner, attention has naturally turned to nuclear power. But if nuclear power is to become more of a player in our energy future, the problem of where to dispose of nuclear waste must be addressed and solutions found.

US President Barack Obama's choice to head the Department of Energy's nuclear power programs told a Senate panel Tuesday that he would more closely integrate the development of new nuclear power and solving the problem of nuclear waste. "It is critical to take an integrated approach that considers the entire nuclear fuel cycle," Warren Miller told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee during his confirmation hearing. Miller has been nominated as both assistant secretary of nuclear energy and the director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. During the previous administration, DOE staffed the positions with separate officials. Combining the two offices under one official comes as the administration moves to kill the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, which has long been planned for Nevada.

Nevada's Harry Reid carries considerable influence as Senate majority leader, but you might not know it from watching him. He shuns self-promotion and avoids the social circuit; he once passed up a White House state dinner honoring Queen Elizabeth II to stay home with his wife. He can be taciturn, even dour on television, and often speaks in such a whisper that, to start off 2008, he revealed a New Year's resolution: "I'm going to try to talk louder." But he more than makes up for any stylistic shortcomings by being the consummate inside player. Reid called his 2008 autobiography "The Good Fight," a reference to the combative ex-boxer's willingness to enter a tussle. As leader of the Senate Democrats in the 111th Congress (2009-10), Reid can expect far fewer scraps with the White House than when it was in Republican hands, plus an expanded base of Democrats that will give him greater leeway to operate. But he isn't assured of a totally peaceful life.