President Obama may have undercut his ability to meet his climate change goals by scrapping the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump in Nevada, which his top energy official suggested would slow the growth of zero-emission nuclear power plants.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Wednesday that meeting greenhouse gas emission goals by 2030 will depend on nuclear power plants being included in the energy mix. And that will involve solving the nuclear waste storage problem, which is making it harder for utilities to build new nuclear power plants.