By RUSTY DENNEN
Much of this year’s crop of “green” bills wending their way through the General Assembly focus on perennial staples: protecting water and air quality, preserving open space, investing in clean energy and seeking more environment-friendly transportation solutions.
“We’ve had some progress and some setbacks,” Nathan Lott, executive director of the Virginia Conservation Network, said Monday about legislators’ work so far. The 60-day session began Jan. 11 and ends March 10.
In December, the network of about 125 environmental, preservation and community organizations put out its legislative agenda.
High on its list of priorities was for lawmakers to continue a nearly 30-year moratorium on uranium mining and milling, in response to plans by Virginia Uranium Inc. in Pittsylvania County.
The ban will continue, for now: Earlier this month, Gov. Bob McDonnell said the moratorium shouldn’t be lifted without more study. Also, McDonnell signed an executive order directing development of regulations for mining and processing the radioactive mineral.
That didn’t sit well with VCN and other groups opposed to lifting the ban.
The Roanoke River Basin Association, for example, called the decision “premature and fiscally imprudent.”
Lott said conservationists “have got our work cut out for us” on the uranium issue, in light of McDonnell’s order. “But, for us, it’s a vindication of a lot of work over the past year” in getting the word out about the proposal for the Coles Hill site in Pittsylvania.
For more on VCN’s legislative goals, http://vcnva.org/anx/ass/library/66/commonagenda2012.pdf
Rusty Dennen: 540/374-5431
rdennen@freelancestar.com
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http://blogs.fredericksburg.com/newsdesk/2012/01/30/green-bills-work-through-assembly/
