By Published by The Editorial Board
Danville Register & Bee
To the editor:
In response to, “Report tackles lobbying efforts,” (Nov. 24, page A1), my dictionary says a lobbyist is “a person who tries to influence legislation on behalf of a special interest.” Apparently Mr. Wales, Virginia Uranium Inc.’s resident expert in all matters uranium, has confused the roles of lobbyists with that of a tour guide.
Lobbyists don’t guide anything. They take money from VUI in order to try to convince the legislators in Richmond to give VUI what it wants — a study, uranium mining regulations and the lifting of the current moratorium on uranium mining and processing. VUI’s lobbyists are not tour guides, as Wales would like us to believe. They are well-paid employees of VUI.
Second, Wales assumption that “environmental groups are … well funded and experienced in lobbying …” is not based in fact. Southside Concerned Citizens has a very limited budget, unlike VUI, whose funds come from the mining conglomerate Aberdeen International. Wales would like us to think that VUI is a “small, locally-owned company,” and would ask us to feel sorry for them that they are facing such a “difficult, uphill battle” in order to get permission to ruin our homes with their toxic, radioactive mining waste.
Third, Wales must have been suffering a mental meltdown when he stated that, “the lifting of the moratorium was never part of anything we had plans for.” If VUI is not for the lifting of the moratorium, then they are not for the mining and milling of uranium at Coles Hill, and therefore they are working against their own stated objective.
Perhaps VUI would be wise to choose a different spokesperson, or at least ask Wales to put a little more thought into what he says on their behalf.
JESSE PYRANT ANDREWS
Halifax
http://www.godanriver.com/gdr/news/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/danville_letters/article/danville_regional_lobbyists_and_more/7851/
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