Comment: Please write this group of so call "VA Leaders" to tell them to keep the Uranium Ban and we are watching you, strange, none of this group are from the areas that will be blown up for uranium!
As the Washington Post reported late last week, several Virginia Delegates and Senators have accepted an all-expenses-paid trip to France, compliments of Virginia Uranium Inc. The company, which reportedly invited all 140 members of the General Assembly to take the trip, is hoping to persuade state elected officials to lift the Commonwealth's long-standing ban on uranium mining during the upcoming legislative session.
The visit is being billed as a 'fact-finding' trip, but will include enough time for the elected officials to spend three days in Paris. The rest of the itinerary is not clear.
Since the news came out, both the Washington Post, The Virginia-Pilot and the Roanoke Times have editorialized against the appearance that this kind of trip, legal in Virginia, but unacceptable at the federal level, presents. The scary truth is, Virginia law permits companies to make unlimited gifts to legislators so long as the gifts are reported (gifts are not campaign contributions, they are for personal use). In 2010 Virginia Uranium was the second most generous company, spending $27,000 on just four legislators.
Tell Your Legislators that Votes Shouldn't Be Bought
Send an email letting your Delegate and Senator know that you'll be watching the uranium mining issue closely over the next year.
Click here to tell the so called "VA Leaders" vote to keep the ban:
http://pec.citizen-networks.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pec_home
Uranium Lobby Pushes Forward Without Evidence
The National Academy of Sciences is currently preparing a report for the Governor and General Assembly examining the scientific, technical, environmental, human health and safety and regulatory aspects of uranium mining and milling. The report, due in December, may provide a framework for a more detailed debate. By flying legislators to France this now, it is clear that Virginia Uranium and its friends in Richmond are attempting to exert an undue influence.
While our legislators are in France we doubt they will be meeting with the Commission for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity ("CRIIRAD") which has prepared a report on the devastating legacy of uranium mining in France. In the United States the legacy of uranium mining has left a path of destruction among the Navajo in the southwest, including the 1979 collapse of a dam holding back uranium waste. Just this past February, a report commission by Virginia Beach showed that if radioactive waste were to escape containment in a catastrophic failure (like what happened in New Mexico) and get into Kerr Reservoir and Lake Gaston it could contaminate Virginia Beach drinking water for up to two years.
What risk to human health, the economy and the environment do Virginia legislators find acceptable? Please take a minute to write to your state elected officials today.
Sincerely,
Dan Holmes
Director of State Policy
Piedmont Environmental Council
dholmes@pecva.org
Click here to read:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/virginia-lawmakers-flying-to-france-as-part-of-lobbying-push-for-uranium-mining/2011/06/15/AG0BDxXH_story.html
http://hamptonroads.com/2011/06/finding-facts-western-france
http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/290615
http://www.pecva.org/anx/ass/library/335/radiological_hazards_uranium_mining.pdf
http://www2.godanriver.com/news/2011/feb/01/worst-case-spill-study-released-virginia-beach-ar-814166/
