About half of last year’s reported gifts to state lawmakers came from Virginia Uranium Inc., a company pushing them to lift a 30-year moratorium on uranium mining.
Virginia Uranium spent more than $120,000 on General Assembly members, mainly for the company’s sponsored trips to uranium sites in France and Canada, according to the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project’s online database. This comprised nearly half the total gift spending of $245,393.
Virginia Uranium would like to mine and mill what’s thought to be the largest undeveloped U.S. uranium deposit in Pittsylvania County. Last month, Gov. Bob McDonnell asked lawmakers to wait on making a decision to lift the moratorium to allow further study and for a multi-agency workgroup to develop draft regulations.
For 2011, legislators reported 532 gifts or trips in personal finance disclosure forms they must submit each January, according to the VPAP-compiled data. This excludes taxpayer-funded trips and campaign contributions.
The second top “gifter” was Dominion with $16,916.
Sixteen lawmakers accepted VUI-paid trips to either a reclaimed uranium site in France or active uranium operations in Canada, according to the VPAP-compiled data. They included Sen. John C. Watkins, Sen. Frank Wagner and Delegate Onzlee Ware, who are members of the uranium mining subcommittee of the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission.
For more information, visit www.vpap.org.
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