Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Bob McDonnell’s office says it has received over 5 times the number of requests to keep the ban


According to Gov. McDonnell’s office, 894 calls, emails, letters, and faxes have been received in support of maintaining the ban on uranium mining while only 171 have supported uranium mining in Virginia.[1]

For anyone who has been following the issue in Virginia, the results are not surprising. Virginians throughout the commonwealth have CLEARLY stated their support for the ban on uranium mining.

Yet, the issue persists in no small part due to one company, Virginia Uranium Inc. (VUI)[2], the self-proclaimed arbiter of Virginia’s energy future. With the help of puppet legislators, VUI has been able to put the legislature under its thumb and almost lift the ban on uranium mining.

But as I, and many others have argued, economic benefits and energy independence (benefits that VUI claims uranium mining will bring to Virginia) are not goals that can be or should be strived for at any cost. 

Yes, job creation and economic benefits along with energy independence would be great, but at what cost, and who would really win and who would really be taking the short end of the stick, so to speak?

When any company fights as hard as VUI has, and is, to win on an issue, there is obviously a mega-payoff somewhere in the future. While this is in and of itself not problematic, it becomes a problem when billions of dollars are on the line: it tends to blind ones judgment!

So for all of the lamentations by members of the General Assembly and VUI about how concerned citizens of Virginia who oppose uranium mining are “not being reasonable,” the sad irony is that greed has blinded many of the proponents of uranium mining within VUI and the General Assembly to the potential and significant consequences of this process.[3] 


[1] http://www.nbc12.com/story/21089999/va-governor-hearing-from-public-on-uranium-mining
[2] http://www.virginiauranium.com/
[3] http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20091808-19572.html

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