Uranium next test for politics of green

Apr 17 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Olympia Meola Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va

In a coal-rich state that prides itself on a pro-business climate, Virginia's environmental lobby can have a tough go of it.

Over the years, conservation groups have engaged in a tug of war over matters of cleaner air and clearer water, often pitted against powerful business interests.

Environmental groups are girding for one of their biggest fights yet over the potential for uranium mining in Pittsylvania County. Virginia Uranium Inc. wants to mine a 119 million-pound uranium deposit, but environmental groups -- and the city of Virginia Beach -- worry about potential groundwater contamination.

In the past several years, conservation advocates have suffered what they consider major defeats and attribute their difficulties in large part to two things.

One, they lack a powerful kind of green: money.

That uneven financial muscle, coupled with a premise that being pro-business can't be pro-environment, plays a substantial part in why for years -- spanning Democrat and Republican administrations -- the climate for environmentally friendly legislation has been poor, said Glen Besa, executive director of the Sierra Club's Virginia chapter.

Virginia has long been a pro-business state with leaders of both parties wary of new, costly mandates on businesses, as environmental regulations are often perceived.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is engaged in litigation with the Environmental Protection Agency over proposed regulations governing greenhouse-gas emissions, basically challenging the climate science research the agency is using.

But all sides argue that being pro-business doesn't have to translate into anti-green.

Barry DuVal, president and CEO of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, said he looks for balanced policies that are economically sound and environmentally friendly.

"I think that's the balance that the Virginia legislature tries to reach," he said.

He said achieving the goal for Virginia to become the energy capital of the East Coast -- a pursuit of Gov. Bob McDonnell's -- will require policies that are pro-energy, pro-economic and pro-environmentally friendly. That includes green jobs and renewable energy, he said.

"I think that's the next frontier for us," he said.

The 2010 General Assembly did add a green-jobs tax credit, which would allow a corporate and individual income-tax credit of $500 for each new green job with an annual salary of $50,000 or more created in Virginia.

And there are other green corporate tax credits already on the books, including the Biodiesel and Green Diesel Fuels Producers Tax Credit and the Clean Fuel Vehicle Job Creation Tax Credit. In taxable year 2008, no corporation claimed either.

But in that same year, the Coalfield Employment Enhancement Act accounted for nearly $6 million of the $17.5 million in total tax credits claimed by corporations. In 2006, of the $58.6 million in tax credits claimed by 248 corporations, $31 million went to coal companies under the Coalfield Employment Enhancement Act, according to a November report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, the legislature's watchdog agency.

Robert Burnley, a former director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, said he has seen a chipping away at environmental protections in Virginia, most recently on measures allowing companies to buy air pollution credits and on water toxicity testing.

"I think the environmental community is fighting an uphill battle," he said. "I don't think environmental protection is at the top of the agenda for the legislature as a whole."

The successes are better at some times than others, he said, but it will take a change in political will to boost protections and possibly a change in perspective.

Burnley makes the argument that a healthy environment is crucial to a vibrant economy, and vice versa.

"If we don't have some wealth to spend on keeping our environment clean, then we won't," he said.

And tourism benefits from a clean Chesapeake Bay or fresh mountain air over Shenandoah National Park.

The uranium issue, percolating for years, is likely to reach a key decision point in 2012.

A National Academy of Sciences committee is studying the effects of mining the deposit and is expected to report its findings this year. The state has had a moratorium on uranium mining since the 1980s, and it would take a vote of the General Assembly to lift the ban.

Last year, three lawmakers visited France as guests of Virginia Uranium. Among the group was state Sen. John Watkins, R-Powhatan, who has said that while there, he visited an Areva plant and saw a former uranium strip mine that had been rehabilitated.

Areva is one of the world's largest manufacturers of nuclear power plants.

Environmental groups and the city of Virginia Beach have expressed serious concerns with the potential for radiation flowing into the drinking water supply after heavy rains or flooding if mining is allowed.

"I think we have in fact before us a supreme test of whether business interests trump common sense in this case with regard to environmental policy when it comes to uranium mining in 2012," Besa said.

omeola@timesdispatch.com

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