The hoax of a group royally dubbed the “Uranium Working
Group” met on Tuesday with the Coal and Energy Commission and their uranium
mining subcommittee on Tuesday to discuss, among other things, a multi-agency
study on uranium mining in Virginia.
The Uranium Working Group recently submitted a report on
uranium mining in Virginia to their overlord, Gov. Bo McDonnell, on Nov. 30,
another step towards subverting the General Assembly and the will of
Virginians.[1]
During the 2012 session of the Virginia General Assembly,
Gov. Bob McDonnell effectively took the issue of lifting the ban on uranium
mining in Virginia off of the legislative table and instead created the
“Uranium Working Group” to study uranium mining in Virginia and the regulations
that would be necessary to lift the ban.
When the legislative ban was passed in the General Assembly
in 1982, it was specified that the ban on uranium mining would not be lifted
until appropriate regulations had been put in place to safeguard the welfare of
Virginia and Virginians.
Apparently believing the democratic process to be too slow
and cumbersome, Gov. McDonnell opted instead to essentially put the authority
of lifting the uranium mining ban into the hands of the executive branch (i.e.,
the branch McDonnell has control over).
And for some time now the primary group working to lift the
ban on uranium mining in Virginia, Virginia Uranium Inc., “has been lobbying
legislators to propose a bill that would, in effect, lift the commonwealth’s
moratorium on uranium mining.”[2]
Thus, the main company that would benefit from the lifting
of the ban, Virginia Uranium Inc. (VUI), has also been attempting to influence
legislators to take the necessary legislative steps to do so in subtle and
sometimes not to subtle ways[3].
But VUI has also supported using the executive branch as the
primary, if not exclusive, tool to lift the 30 year ban on uranium mining in
Virginia. Going through the executive branch to lift the ban has all kinds of
advantages, among which are skirting the demands of Virginians who stand to be
most affected by uranium mining in Southside Virginia, whether for good or for
bad.
But it is the people of Southside Virginia who should have
the ultimate say in whether to allow uranium mining in their backyards,
metaphorically speaking. With Virginians hundreds of miles away attempting to
make decisions for folks who stand to lose or gain the most, the true dangers
are oftentimes not fully comprehended.
Most of us know what the advantages to uranium mining are,
but if something catastrophic happens, it will be those in Southside Virginia
who “get the short end of the stick,” not those of us in central and northern
Virginia.
Let the Southside Virginians decide whether or not to lift
the ban on uranium mining. They stand to lose the most, not the rest of
Virginia.
[1] http://www.sovanow.com/index.php?/news/article/uranium_working_group_delivers_study_to_gov._mcdonnell/
[2] http://www.newsadvance.com/go_dan_river/news/pittsylvania_county/article_1d8ea2f2-39bf-11e2-83bd-0019bb30f31a.html
[3] http://www.alexandriagazette.com/news/2012/nov/27/uranium-money-spreads-across-virginia/
No comments:
Post a Comment