Comments: My thoughts, did the Gov just called Ms. France a liar: Why do people call folk liars, is it because they lie them self?
By: | Times-Dispatch
Published: April 05, 2012
Updated: April 05, 2012 - 2:02 PM
RICHMOND, Va. --
Gov. Bob
McDonnell will make no recommendation on whether the General Assembly should end
the state's 30-year ban on uranium mining, a spokesman said today.
McDonnell's
press secretary, Jeff Caldwell, said the governor will simply pass along
the findings of an administration study group that is investigating
uranium-mining safety.
“His role is not
going to be a bully pulpit role to say to the General Assembly, 'This is what I
think you should do,' “ said Caldwell.’
He added,
“That’s been the position all along.”
A key member of
McDonnell’s study group, Cathie J. France, said in early March that the group
would make a recommendation to the governor, who would in turn make a
recommendation to the General Assembly.
Administration
officials say that was not accurate.
Robert Burnley,
a former Virginia environmental director now working as a consultant for an
environmental group, found the no-recommendation position surprising.
“If the governor
is not using this information (from the study group) to make a recommendation to
the legislature next year, I'm not sure what the purpose of all this work is,”
Burnley said.
The group is
studying the safety of a proposed uranium mine in Pittsylvania County and
looking at possible ways to regulate mining.
The group will
make its report to the governor late this year, and he will pass it along to the
legislature, Caldwell said.
McDonnell
announced he would form the study group, composed of state officials and staff
members, after asking the General Assembly in January to hold off on possibly
ending the uranium-mining ban.
(This has been a
breaking news update. The earlier article is below.)
Officials in Gov. Bob McDonnell's administration told environmentalists and others Wednesday that the state's uranium-mining study group will work in an unusual but open way.
The officials spoke in a one-hour meeting that was itself unusual. It was called on two days' notice. Most of the public was not invited. And McDonnell officials declined to talk to the news media afterward.
"I don't think that's openness," said Olga Kolotushkina, a representative of the Virginia League of Conservation Voters. She said McDonnell officials are "making it up as they go along."
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2012/apr/05/7/tdmet04-mcdonnell-officials-discuss-uranium-study--ar-1819700/
