The weather outside was frightful for many in Washington State last week. The roads of Pacific Emerald City were icy enough for Nancy Kerrigan to do a triple axle. The cars were slipping around the roads like Sunday at a NASCAR event. Any level-headed city official would have de-iced the roads with salt to make them safer, but not the geniuses in the Washington city. Until last week, they refused to use salt at all because of environmental concerns.

But succumbing to citizen pressure by a fuming electorate, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has seen the light as he reversed the decade-old policy this past Wednesday. He still has limited the use of salt to "be used on hills, arterials or bus snow routes, and on routes to hospitals and other emergency facilities when at least 4 inches of snow is predicted, if ice is predicted or if extreme cold is expected to last more than three days." Nickels, by the way, saw the light just as he comes up for re-election later this year.

Hey, I care about Mother Earth as much as the next guy, but sometimes people get downright nutty with their ideas about how to protect the planet. They often overreach, and make Mt. Everest out of a pebble. I'm beginning to agree with Kermit. "It ain't easy being green."

So, let’s get real...

It’s time the State of Washington and the rest of this country started focusing its energy on real solutions ~ such as building nuclear power plants. A lot of strides have been made in nuclear power since the Days of the hapless events of Three Mile Island.

Nuclear power makes sense since nuclear power has been proven safe, and is 100% carbon free. France powers about 87.5% of the country by nuclear power plants. They produce enough energy with their plants that they can export electricity to other countries which brings revenue back to theirs.

France's carbon emissions per kWh are less than 1/10 that of Germany and the UK, and 1/13 that of Denmark, which has no nuclear plants. Its emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide have been reduced by 70% over 20 years, even though the total power output has tripled in that time. According to a poll done in France, 88 percent of the population believe that reducing the greenhouse effect was a major reason to continue using nuclear power.

Look, as long as the waste is disposed of correctly, there is no reason why we shouldn't start building nuclear power plants. It certainly would lessen our dependence on foreign oil and that would help us economically.

So what are we waiting for?

For environmentalists in Seattle and elsewhere to stop getting bogged down in silly stuff, as Washington State did last week wasting a lot of energy in its argument over salt getting into the ecosystem where it naturally comes from in the first place.

Anyway, the fact is that the amount of salt that could possibly run-off into the Puget Sound from salt that is put onto the roads a few days a year isn't enough to deaden the Sound.

Diane Spector, a water-resources planner for Wenck Associates, which evaluated snow and ice clearance for nine cities in the Midwest, confirmed that using salt periodically will not have a lasting effect on the environment as long it is not used too often or too much.

So ta-ta salt, heave the sand, the newest stupid argument. Now that cities are moving from salt to sand, environmentalists are crying salty tears that sand backs-up the sewers, goes into waterways, creates air pollution, and costs even more to clean up than salt.

Ann Williams, spokeswoman for Denver's Department of Public Works, says that Denver never uses sand because it "causes dust, and there's also water-quality issues where it goes into streets and into our rivers." They don't even use enough sand to provide adequate traction, according to experts.

So now cities are moving to the method of "snow-packing." This is where they compact the snow and make it a harder surface to drive on, rather than melting it. Genuis’, right? Wrong!

The result of using the less-efficient method of "snow-packing" instead of the environmentally destructive salt or sand, both which come from the earth, has led to Armageddon on the roads. According to the Washington State police, they responded to 157 collisions last Sunday in King County (Seattle) alone. Troopers also responded to another 312 disabled vehicles.

Seattle City Council Nick Licata said it best, "When you wrap yourself in a green blanket, you've got to have some clothes underneath it," "This is what gives green a bad name. You've got to balance it with practical analysis and you've got to defend your position with some facts."

The guy sounds like the salt of the earth to me.

*Halli Casser-Jayne contributed to this article.

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