Comment: Good luck Mr. Bernard, Watkins is a yes sir man to the uranium mining companies, taken trips to France and Canada on their dime! Keep the Uranium Ban!
Published: November 02, 2011
by Emily Darrell
Staff Writer
At last Wednesday’s Candidate Night, held at Powhatan High School, there was the expected amount of tension and disagreement, and perhaps even a little of what might be called mud-slinging.
Though the two differ on a number of points, their views on a very specific set of issues – namely, coal and uranium mining and offshore oil drilling – are essentially polar opposite.
Watkins, who took to the mic first, said – in no uncertain terms –that he supports offshore drilling for oil, coal mining, and favors lifting the ban on uranium mining in Virginia “if it can be done safely.”
“I favor coal mining in Virginia,” Watkins said. “We have been mining in Virginia for 300 years. It contributes immensely to our Gross National Product and the GDP here in Virginia. It is the biggest bulk export product that Virginia has today.”
“I also favor drilling for offshore oil and gas,” Watkins continued. “For too many years artificial prohibitions on things like uranium, coal, oil and gas in this county have put this country in a situation where we are subservient to other nations – a lot of nations that don’t like us. I don’t think we can continue that.”
In his turn to speak, Bernard countered that the amount of offshore oil Virginia has – less than 1 percent of 1 percent of the world’s oil reserves –“will neither lower prices nor reduce the ongoing dependence on foreign oil.”
“The chief reason I entered this race,” Bernard said, “is that last January my opponent said that we Virginians had to drill offshore for oil and that we had to mine for uranium. He is insisting on violating the land that I love, and was committing Virginia to a dead-end road on energy.”
“There is a well-funded lobbying effort to open Virginia to uranium mining,” Bernard said, “which is now banned – as it should be. My opponent claims he will only mine uranium if it can be done safely. I do not trust our General Assembly and Governor’s office to guarantee that this is done [. . .] Uranium mining will drive radioactive rock and expose it to the air and water; and you can be sure the company will want to do their work as cheaply as possible.”
Bernard also took Watkins to task for what he views as a poor environmental track record overall
Read more:
http://www.powhatantoday.com/index.php/news/article/candidates-in-senate-race-differ-on-drilling-mining/26540/
