Uranium mining is the number one environmental issue in Virginia despite the consensus that this is bad idea. Big money is contaminating the political process. Last year, Virginia Uranium, Inc. was flying legislators to Paris (France, not Paris, Virginia), perfectly legal under Virginia law. Despite the overwhelming opposition to mining, Governor McDonnell intervened to set up a process biased in favor of approving mining.
The lack of transparency in this process has made the Governor's Uranium Working Group the butt of editorials and articles, including this one in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Sierra Club is leading the grassroots effort for the Keep the Ban Coalition (www.keeptheban.org) and we have had over 100 folks show up at every public meeting the Governor's Uranium Working Group has had.
Our Keep the Ban fight is a classic fight between people power vs. money, gobs of money!
That means that we need every one of you to contact their State Senator and Delegate. Send them an e-mail, call their office, write them a letter. And if you get an ambiguous response back, write or call them back and tell them that we need a firm commitment from them to oppose lifting the ban. There is also this action alert you can send legislators:
We ask that you take this action, but we hope you'll also take a few minutes to enjoy this August edition of our monthly e-mail newsletter. There is a lot going on and we invite you to get involved.
Thank you,
Glen Besa, Director
Virginia Chapter Sierra Club
