The news that Virginia is going to study uranium mining in Southside has the state's ideologues up-in-arms. Both sides of the political divide keep Virginians from possibly securing a cheap and domestic source of energy to power our homes and military. Free market conservatives and anti-development liberals are at war over the prospect of mining America's largest undeveloped uranium deposit.
The libertarian-right would like to "cut the red tape" and quickly release a study that favors the business community. These uranium supporters want the government to "get of their backs". This philosophy is flawed because adherents don't see that development has its drawbacks and must be monitored by government to make sure our actions won't hurt us. Oversight is a good thing.
On the other side of the uranium mining debate, environmental absolutists have the mentality that all development is bad if the earth is affected in any way. Every new improvement to our infrastructure is met with suspicion. It's as if they assume any development will hurt the environment before they hear the facts. These uranium opponents shouldn't stifle academic research which might prove that uranium mining is safe for Virginians.
As the academic community studies Virginia uranium mining in the next two years, opponents and proponents must have an open-mind and accept the unbiased facts that are presented to us.
The libertarian-right would like to "cut the red tape" and quickly release a study that favors the business community. These uranium supporters want the government to "get of their backs". This philosophy is flawed because adherents don't see that development has its drawbacks and must be monitored by government to make sure our actions won't hurt us. Oversight is a good thing.
On the other side of the uranium mining debate, environmental absolutists have the mentality that all development is bad if the earth is affected in any way. Every new improvement to our infrastructure is met with suspicion. It's as if they assume any development will hurt the environment before they hear the facts. These uranium opponents shouldn't stifle academic research which might prove that uranium mining is safe for Virginians.
As the academic community studies Virginia uranium mining in the next two years, opponents and proponents must have an open-mind and accept the unbiased facts that are presented to us.
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