Governor urged to uphold uranium mining moratorium
Following the defeat of legislation to lift Virginia's longstanding ban on uranium mining in January 2013, some are now pressuring Gov. Bob McDonnell to circumvent the General Assembly and develop mining regulations outside of the legislative process.
SELC's Cale Jaffe and Bob Burnley, former director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, wrote an opinion piece in today's Richmond Times-Dispatch making the case for why McDonnell should rebuff the mining company’s latest pleas to develop regulations.
They detail the numerous studies from the National Academy of Sciences and other experts that have looked at this issue, concluding, “uranium mining has been one of the most carefully studied environmental issues in recent Virginia history. In fact, the moratorium remains on the books precisely because peer-reviewed science has shed so much light on the issue.”