Don't wait too late to make up mind on uranium
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 9:01 AM EDT
Asked how he or she stands on the issue of uranium mining in Virginia, members of the General Assembly are likely to reply that they are waiting for the report from the National Academy of Science.
What we need to know, as was pointed out in the Star-Tribune recently in an article by Olga Kolotushkina, is that the National Academy of Science study "will not make recommendations about whether or not uranium mining should be permitted."
And we need to know that the results of the study are to be published in December when the public is preoccupied by holiday celebration and that the vote in the General Assembly on whether to lift the ban is set for January.
No wonder that supporters of uranium mining continually encourage us to wait for the study.
Of course, they are not waiting themselves.
Virginia Uranium already has donated over $55,000 to candidates and has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to Richmond's most prestigious lobbying firms.
If we wait until December to make up our minds, any decision that we make will probably be irrelevant. It will be too late.
Now is the time to come to the aid of our community.
Bill Winn
Martinsville, VA
Read more:
http://www.wpcva.com/articles/2011/06/29/chatham/opinion/opinion12.txt
