Why Does the Environmental Community Oppose Academic Study of Uranium Mining?

The Virginia environmental community has made it clear that they will stand in the way of any study into the safety and viability of uranium mining in Southside Virginia.

We saw this when the Virginia Legislature was deciding if they were going to allow a uranium study earlier this year. In an effort to block it, environmental groups resorted to trashing the academic community.

Speaking at a Halifax town meeting in January, Project Director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund told the crowd, “It is up to the majority of the residents, not corporations or scientific experts, to determine whether uranium mining will be permitted in Pittsylvania County.”

First of all, what does Mr. Price have against the academic community? Educators won’t present biased information; they have nothing to gain monetarily by favoring Virginia Uranium, Inc. Mr. Price has taken a very cynical view of the study process.

Second, I don’t think anyone believes corporations and “scientific experts” are in cahoots. Conventional wisdom would tell us the business community and academics often take antagonistic viewpoints.

In November, environmental groups showed their distain after Virginia’s Coal and Energy Commission decided to allow an independent and unbiased study that would explain the implications of mining for uranium. This obstructionist behavior will only disrupt the study process.

Why is Virginia’s environmental community standing in the way of academic research that will simply tell us if uranium mining is safe to perform in Southside Virginia? This will only lead to a muddied study that will give us inaccurate results. I must ask the environmental community to keep an open-mind during the study process.