Joe Dashiell Reporter
7:32 p.m. EDT, September 7, 2011

ROANOKE, Va.—

State lawmakers and local officials are travelling to Canada later this month to visit a working uranium mine, but the trip is drawing criticism because it's being financed by Virginia Uranium, the company that hopes to mine a large uranium deposit in Pittsylvania County.

Opponents of uranium mining say the leaders who join the trip will only hear part of the story. Cale Jaffe is with the Southern Environmental Law Center. "When you have a private, closed tour that's paid for by one industry and does not allow for any other point of view," Jaffe said in a telephone interview, "you're essentially only looking at an issue with blinders on."

Virginia Uranium isn't releasing the names of the state lawmakers and local leaders who will make the trip, but Roanoke Delegate Onzlee Ware confirmed Wednesday that he is planning to go.

Read more:
http://www.wdbj7.com/news/wdbj7-uranium-mining-canada-trip-draws-criticism-20110907,0,3932
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