By: | WSLS
Published: February 07, 2012
Published: February 07, 2012
About half of last year’s reported gifts to state lawmakers
came from Virginia Uranium Inc., a company pushing them to lift a 30-year
moratorium on uranium mining.
Virginia Uranium spent more than $120,000 on General Assembly
members, mainly for the company’s sponsored trips to uranium sites in France and
Canada, according to the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project’s online
database. This comprised nearly half the total gift spending of $245,393.
Virginia Uranium would like to mine and mill what’s thought to
be the largest undeveloped U.S. uranium deposit in Pittsylvania County. Last
month, Gov. Bob McDonnell asked lawmakers to wait on making a decision to lift
the moratorium to allow further study and for a multi-agency workgroup to
develop draft regulations.
For 2011, legislators reported 532 gifts or trips in personal
finance disclosure forms they must submit each January, according to the
VPAP-compiled data. This excludes taxpayer-funded trips and campaign
contributions.
Sixteen lawmakers accepted VUI-paid trips to either a
reclaimed uranium site in France or active uranium operations in Canada,
according to the VPAP-compiled data. They included Sen. John C. Watkins, Sen.
Frank Wagner and Delegate Onzlee Ware, who are members of the uranium mining
subcommittee of the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission.
For more information, visit www.vpap.org
