Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Best Rebuttal of Reasons to Mine Uranium

(The ALLIANCE with SCC Action Committee Chair, Gregg Vickrey, has written the absolute best rebuttal of arguments made by the Multi-National and local mining corporations that i have seen. He has taken the actual presentation VUI makes in its "special, secret presentations" to local citizens (Vickrey has attended one such) and rebutts argument after argument. His dissertation follows below with a link to the balance of the article after a few introductory paragraphs. DO NOT MISS READING THIS----IT'S POWERFUL !)

I attended the VUI presentation. Here is what they had to say. I am taking this off of my hard copy of their power point presentation and will write each of their points for each of their slides verbatim. My impressions/questions will follow in bold italics.

Slide 1
Virginia Uranium, Inc.
Overview for January 30, 2008

Slide 2
Basics
Our Goal
Implement Virginia Energy Plan recommendation to study whether uranium development can be done safely in Pittsylvania County.
Don't they mean their energy plan? The Energy Plan actually says: "Virginia should assess the potential value of and regulatory needs for uranium production in Pittsylvania County." This says nothing about it being done safely. Why is this? This sounds like a forgone conclusion. In fact, as reported by Scott Harper for the Virginian Pilot...published Oct 21,2007...: "To renew political interest in uranium, Coles got some well connected help-namely from his brother-in-law Whit Clement, a former state delegate and Virginia transportation secretary under former Gov. Mark Warner. According to state Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, Clement asked him to include uranium mining in Wagner's 2006 energy bill. The bill at first did not mention uranium. But after hearing from Clement whom Wagner described as an old friend and colleague, "I decided to put in an amendment," the senator said. When the bill passed last year, a section that endorsed a study of possible uranium mining in Pittsylvania County remained in the text-and later became part of the Virginia Energy Plan, which Kaine announced this summer." Frank Wagner is also the sponsor of SB-525, which is the bill to create a commission to tell VUI how to mine this deposit legally. Whit Clement is VUI's primary lobbyist.
Maintain moratorium until a study demonstrates uranium development can be undertaken safely.
Again, an interesting choice of words. Another foregone conclusion. This says that VUI believes that this is what their study will show. It does not tell us what their definition of "safely" is. Health safety (they can never guaranty this for 500,000 years), Social safety (Chatham is already being stigmatized by the very idea of this mine. People in the know who wish to remain anonymous have said …………………………….

I

Click on the link below to read the rest of this article......

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