Uranium mining in Southside Virginia abruptly became
headline news again when it was discovered that Virginia Sen. Bill Stanley had
been recorded telling Pittsylvania County Supervisor, Jerry A. Hagerman, that
Gov. Bob McDonnell had requested the former to lobby the Pittsylvania Board of
Supervisors to table a resolution on uranium mining at its September 4th
meeting.[1]
Consequently, the proposed resolution on uranium mining was
taken off of the board’s Sept. 4 meeting agenda.[2]
Coincidence?
In effect, what Bob McDonnell and his crony surrogates
attempted to do was bypass the democratic process in Pittsylvania County and
for now, they appear to have succeeded.
It’s the latest move in Gov. McDonnell’s bag of
get-around-the-voter tricks[3]
that began with his move to form the “Uranium Working Group” to “be certain
that uranium mining can be conducted safely and responsibly.” But if McDonnell’s goal, or that of the
Republicans in the General Assembly, was to determine if uranium mining could
be conducted “safely and responsibly,” one would have assumed that the National
Academy of Sciences uranium mining study group would have been allowed to make
recommendations on whether or not to lift the ban, given their findings and their
expertise. No such allowance was made,
however.[4]
For McDonnell, “safely and responsibly” really meant “when
voters have their backs turned and their eyes off of the uranium mining issue.”
Thus, the Republican Party strategy for
removing the ban on uranium mining in Virginia is clear: wait the issue out
until the resistance has waned.
McDonnell and company also leave another implicit message:
democracy is only as valued as the ends it can confer for McDonnell and his
friends in the business and political world. To hell with democracy if it
creates barriers to reaching their goals!
Unluckily for McDonnell, his bad karma has repeatedly blown
up in his face. Luckily for Virginians, there are still public officials who
put the concerns of the community and the state above parochial and self-promoting
interests.
[2] http://www2.godanriver.com/news/2012/sep/17/stanley-says-he-misspoke-governor-denies-uranium-i-ar-2212898/
[3] http://www.readthereports.org/index.php/in-the-news/124-governor-mcdonnell-asks-general-assembly-to-keep-uranium-mining-moratorium-in-place-in-2012-session
[4] http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9RBPK9G1.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment