South Boston News & Record
and Mecklenburg Sun |
Home •
News •
Sports •
Classifieds •
Community •
Health •
Entertainment •
Obituaries •
Opinions •
Weather
| Advertising | Contact | About Us | Register |
|
News National Academy members speak in Danville on uranium02/06/12 - 7:53 am
Comets win Poetry Out Loud02/06/12 - 7:51 am
Looking back at 112 years of Virgilina history02/06/12 - 7:48 am
Happy birthday, Virgilina! Few people know it, but the town will be 83 years old this February. According to the first town council minute book, Virgilina was incorporated and its…
Sports Comets fall to Patrick Henry02/07/12 - 9:43 am
Community
Opinion
A&E
- More A&E
|
Opinion Glowing reviewsSoVaNow.com / March 11, 2010
Katie Whitehead, the inestimable chair of the Dan River Basin Association mining task force, is back today with an op-ed on the Coles Hill Farm uranium project in Pittsylvania County, a topic to which yours truly has paid scant attention over the past year. Some time ago I told Katie she was welcome to commandeer our editorial page whenever the mood struck, and her piece today on the politics and science of uranium mining is, as usual, excellent.By coincidence, there has been a recent spate of worthwhile coverage on uranium mining in Virginia. The New Republic, a center-left political journal, just published a long, thoughtful and eminently fair piece on the Coles Hill project that is well worth checking out (either at your local library or on the Web at http://www.tnr.com. Search the TNR website for “uranium mining.”) Better still is an op-ed that appeared in January in the Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star (www.fredericksburg.com). The piece was penned by Tom Zoellner, author of “Uranium: War, Energy and the Rock That Shaped The World.” Zoellner, whose book has received considerable acclaim, comes down hard on mining opponents and proponents alike for stretching the facts to suit their purposes. He expresses particular exasperation with Southside Concerned Citizens chairman Jack Dunavant of Halifax, who Zoellner accuses of spouting “total nonsense” on the alleged catastrophic effects of mining. While Dunavant occasionally sets himself up as an easy target — at an SCC meeting in Chase City, the Halifax councilman vowed to take up arms to stop Virginia Uranium Inc. from mining the Coles Hill site — the assertions of VUI and its supporters are, if anything, more pernicious. Zoellner makes some valuable points on this score. Regarding the much-bandied claim that the Coles Hill deposit is worth $10 billion, Zoellner writes, “This is a number that shifts every year, and the local economy won’t ever see more than a small fraction of it. Richmond has a long history of giving tax breaks to coal companies and we shouldn’t think this will be different. The real profits will be made by utilities, Wall Street, and whatever mining giant takes charge. If the company should go bankrupt in this uncertain milieu, the taxpayers of Virginia could well be paying for their cleanup mess.” Should VUI or its corporate backers go under — hardly an unprecedented occurrence in the mining business — the repercussions for Southside Virginia and taxpayers could be severe. Noting that the Coles Mill mine project includes plans for a yellowcake milling operation, “where concentrations of radioactivity will be even higher,” Zoellner writes, “The last time the U.S. had to clean up one of these for a bankrupt company, it cost $400 million.” This, in my view, is the biggest problem with the Pittsylvania mine project. VUI or its Canadian partners probably would manage to avoid screwing up the area too badly during the effective life of the mine, which might run 20 years. But what happens afterward? One only need look at the runaway greed, irresponsibility and criminality on Wall Street to feel very nervous about future oversight of a highly radioactive mining site that will require remediation for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Talk about undue faith in corporate responsibility! Zoellner labors to strike an even-handed tone towards the Pittsylvania project, but a healthy degree of expert skepticism seeps into his piece. “If this all sounds contradictory,” Zoellner writes, “it’s because uranium never brings any slam-dunk answers. Those who claim it does are deluding themselves. There are reasoned arguments to be made by both sides that do not resort to hype or fear. This mine certainly will not be the economic savior of Southside Virginia, but neither would it make a greenish glow in the night.” Maybe Zoellner’s right on the latter point. But if the local economic benefits are fleeting and prospects for trouble moving forward into the future are strong, why should Southside Virginians line up behind this project? Typical of many otherwise thoughtful pieces, Zoellner ends his op-ed on a decidedly awkward note: “If the [General Assembly] decides to lift its moratorium — and if the residents of Pittsylvania County signal their ascent — they should do so with an understanding about the limitations of uranium mining and a healthy skepticism about claims that sound too good, or bad, to be true.” Who honestly believes that citizens of Pittsylvania County and Southside will be granted veto power over uranium mining should they comes to assess the risks more harshly than VUI and the company’s legislative courtiers in Richmond? Zoellner’s skill as a writer aside, this is one point where Jack Dunavant and a host of others have it all over the experts and pundits. *** This week’s issue of The New Yorker arrived in the mailbox Wednesday and what to my wondering eyes should appear but a long piece on Barack Obama, Tom Perriello and Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District entitled, “Obama’s Lost Year.” The article isn’t on-line, so if you want to give it a read, it’s off to the library you go. Or you could subscribe to The New Yorker, which is surprisingly inexpensive inasmuch as it comes out each week and it’s the best magazine in America. In my humble opinion, of course. Martinsville serves as the focal point for the piece, which looks at the Democrats’ response to the harsh economic conditions and political unease afflicting Main Street. Perriello comes off very well, as you might expect, and Obama is given a fair if critical hearing. One glaringly obvious problem with the article, however, is that it more or less endorses a dubious approach for reviving Southside’s economy — rebuilding the farm economy by ramping up production of biofuels. Alternative energy may be a more promising approach for spurring future job creation than, say, tax cuts for multi-national corporations, but the potential is limited as long as America does basically nothing to end our dependence on low-cost foreign oil. Cap-and-trade, which would raise energy prices, has the potential to create the market space required for small-scale energy producers to take root, but it’s also going nowhere unless Washington gets serious about addressing energy and climate issues, always a doubtful proposition. By the way, the author of The New Yorker piece is George Packer, who wrote “The Assassin’s Gate: America In Iraq,” named one of the ten best books of 2005 by The New York Times. Packer also filed a recent report for The New Yorker from Dresden, so in light of his past work I can only imagine that the Martinsville assignment was more or less a lateral move for him. *** The Virginia Tobacco Commission gave a quick thumbs-down to the idea of aiding Southside and Southwest school divisions during this time of budgetary distress, rejecting a request for K-12 financial assistance from the Halifax County Board of Supervisors and School Board. And, pray tell, how did each member of the Tobacco Commission vote on this matter? Why, they didn’t vote at all! County Administrator George Nester told me this week that he learned indirectly from a commission member that the Tobacco Commission’s strategic plan doesn’t allow for funding of K-12 education, so Halifax’s request didn’t even come up for discussion. Of course, anyone who follows the doings of the Tobacco Commission knows its members pay no attention to the strategic plan on the many occasions when said plan doesn’t suit their purposes, so I’m not sure what this invocation of high-minded principle is supposed to prove. One thing we do know is that Commission members will pour millions into certain economic development projects of dubious merit but are too myopic to preserve and protect public education, the foundation for any future turnaround of the region. Local members of the Tobacco Commission are Ed Owens, John Cannon and Connie Nyholm. Next time you run into one of them, consider asking the question: as a local representative on the Tobacco Commission, do you agree with this decision to deny Halifax County the courtesy of an open debate on an issue of utmost local importance? I, for one, would like to see the legislators who control the Tobacco Commission asked to go on the record in reply to this same query. If they can cut ribbons, they can answer for their actions — the ones they make, or don’t make, as the case may be. |
Classifieds WATERFRONT 2.6 acre wooded homesite with 22-acre lake at your back door. Central Virginia. Common area features tennis court. $65,900 exceptional owner financing. 434-444-5088.
Drivers PAY INCREASE! Regional Van Drivers start at 37 to 41.5cpm w/1 year experience (depends on location). Available training for drivers w/less experience. Great Benefits/Home Weekly. Call 888-362-8608, or visit AVERITTcareers.com. EOE.
40 Residential Apartment Units in SW Roanoke, VA. 4 buildings with rental income. AUCTION: Wednesday, August 11 at 12pm. http://www.countsauction.com (434) 525-2991 (VAAF93)
|
