Even with aggressive energy efficiency, additional power will be needed to keep our lights on and our economy competitive in the face of rapid growth. Based on ERCOT projections, the state will need at least 30,000 megawatts of additional power - the equivalent of 24 million homes - by 2025. And that is before taking into account any retirements of older and less efficient plants.

At the same time, as we work to meet growing demand, we must ensure our new generation is environmentally responsible - and meets the important challenge of reducing carbon emissions to help limit climate change.

To this end, NRG Energy and San Antonio's CPS Energy filed the first application in 29 years for new emission-free nuclear power in the United States. San Antonio already reaps the value of nuclear energy. CPS Energy's partnership in the South Texas Project has helped provide clean, reliable and affordable power for almost two decades.

This new 2,700 megawatt nuclear plant will power two million households and is an example of Texas leading the way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lessen dependence on natural gas.

Nuclear energy produces no greenhouse gases. Our new nuclear project will produce the same amount of electricity as four traditional coal plants, while avoiding the more than 20 million tons of CO2 those plants would have emitted each year.

Nuclear power technology has continued to develop in many countries, primarily Japan and France. Our advanced reactor design has a track record of proven performance and on-time and on-budget construction.

Together with San Antonio's CPS Energy and Austin Energy, our partners on the current South Texas Project units, we own the 12,220-acre site and 7,000-acre cooling reservoir originally designed for four units, not just the existing two.

The project is expected to provide a $9 billion economic impact to Texas, including 5,000 construction jobs, and nearly 1,000 full-time permanent jobs.

However, nuclear power does have issues that must be addressed. Nuclear waste needs a long-term solution. But it needs to be solved with respect to existing nuclear units regardless of whether new nuclear plants are built. In the interim, on-site storage is a safe, secure solution.

Energy efficiency and conservation will play a critical role in helping Texas meet its energy needs. Additionally, we need a balanced generation portfolio of diverse fuels to reduce carbon and other emissions and overdependence on any one fuel.

Natural gas is the only type of capacity we can add to meet immediate demand growth. We recently began construction on a highly efficient natural gas facility near Houston with our partner EnergyCo. The plant should be online when we need it most-the summer of 2009.

We are developing two new West Texas wind projects. We still need other forms of generation for when the wind doesn't blow.

To limit dependence on foreign fuels and natural gas prices as we transition to low- and no-carbon generation, it will be necessary to build a very limited number of traditional coal plants. We plan to expand our Texas coal fleet by one unit with advanced emissions reduction technology at our Limestone plant coupled with improvements on our two existing Limestone units.

We are also helping to develop technologies to reduce carbon emissions from new and existing traditional coal plants.

This balanced portfolio reflects NRG's belief that we have a responsibility to reduce carbon intensity and emissions as we produce reliable, safe and affordable power.

A new era of low and no carbon energy generation is about to begin and Texas is in the lead. Let's do it right and do it now.