Warm Spring is Bad News for Virginia Wine

The global warming-fueled heat wave that's gripped much of America this month may be good news for March picnics, but it's terrible for Virginia wine lovers. Wine grape vines are already waking up, posing a twofold threat - hotter temperatures can mean less flavorful wine, and a sudden frost could devastate the crop:

Workers at Tomahawk Mill Winery in Chatham are certainly concerned. They say they are usually working in the cold right now wearing two pairs of socks and gloves. But while it's nice to work in this weather, the grapes don't like it one bit.

Corky Medaglia, owner of Tomahawk Mill Winery, always says: "When God gives you lemons you make lemonade. And when God gives you grapes, you make wine."  

But within his 17 years working the vineyards, he has never seen a winter like this one. "Sap is coming up because the temperatures are going up. And this guy thinks it's spring time," said Medaglia. 

Meteorologists say there's a 50/50 chance of a surprise frost. And looking ahead, hotter summers are no kinder to wine grapes - when temperatures top 95 degrees, the vine's respiration system can shut down.

(To be clear, the photo with this story is from 2007, not a photo of what the grapes look like right now.)

Surprise: Study from Energy Industry-Packed Commission Presented as Pro-Uranium Mining

As the Virginia General Assembly considers a mining company's request to lift the state's longtime moratorium on digging up radioactive uranium, a new study is making some big claims about economic impacts. But considering the commission that requested the study, should we be surprised the study puts questionable jobs claims first and buries ominous warnings further down?

The report was produced by Chmura Economics & Analytics for the Virginia Coal & Energy Commission. As Bacon's Rebellion blogger Peter Galuszka first pointed out, Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) is so terrified of the possibility of any dissent on the Coal & Energy Commission, he didn't appoint a single representative from conservation groups or from activist groups in Virginia's Southside, where the proposed uranium mining would take place.

Stacking the deck doesn't even begin to describe McDonnell's appointees:

• Barbara Altizer, president & executive director of the Eastern Coal Council
• Jodi Gidley, president of Virginia Natural Gas
• Ken Hutcheson, former GOP strategist and president of Virginia Alternative and Renewable Energy Association, whose main mission seems to be to help Gov. McDonnell and the Virginia Petroleum Council greenwash
• James K. Martin, senior vice president for Dominion Power
• John Matney, president of the Harbor Company & president of the coal mining Stearns Company
• Donald L. Ratliff, vice president for coal mining Alpha Natural Resources, LLC
• Rhonnie Smith, retired from nuclear reactor maker B&W

When reporting to a commission like that, it's no wonder Chmura made sure to highlight the positives and downplay the potentially disastrous negatives:

• “[T]he risks and rewards are not balanced, and the adverse economic impact under the worst-case scenario is nearly twice as great as the corresponding positive impact in our best-case scenario.” (page 7)
• "[T]he historic track record of the uranium industry—largely forged in the unregulated period of the 1950s and 1960s—is poor with an established legacy of water, soil, and air contamination, which has elevated the health risks for the surrounding communities.” (p. 17)
• "Even under the best of circumstances, Chmura judges some adverse health effects and environmental contamination is likely.” (p. 83)

Up next is a National Academy of Sciences recap of existing science surrounding uranium mining. Among the questions still unanswered: What do we know about the risk to drinking water in case of a natural disaster? Would already-underfunded Virginia agencies be able to sufficiently protect the public? What do we know about the quality of the uranium and how that could affect demand for it in an uncertain market?

Learn more about why eliminating the uranium mining moratorium would be such a bad deal for Virginia at KeepTheBan.org. 

Uranium Mining to Make Virginia Glow "an Eerie Green," Says House GOP

The "un-official blog of the Virginia House of Delegates GOP Caucus" put up a post on uranium mining this morning that quickly disappeared. Maybe someone thought that telling Virginians that uranium mining would make something (land? water? Virginians?) glow "an eerie green" was maybe not the best messaging? Heck, even the words "uranium deposit" are written in Incredible Hulk green:

The blog is written anonymously, calls itself unofficial, and isn't hosted on a government or party site. Given how sloppily written the blog is and how it presents House Republicans as little more than industry sock puppets, I'm not surprised there's no name on it. Unfortunately that makes it impossible to know who wrote it, what they were thinking, or who made the frantic phone call to for god's sake take down that post before anyone sees it.

But isn't that symbolic of the whole effort? Virginia Uranium is pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into political donations and lobbying hoping to jam through a repeal of Virginia's sensible uranium mining ban before anyone notices its wild inflation of economic impacts or how similar fool's gold like oil and gas fracking has brought unhappiness to towns from North Dakota to Pennsylvania.

Learn more about why lifting Virginia's ban uranium mining would be such a bad deal for Virginians from Keep the Ban and ProgressVA.

Uranium Site Faces "Frequent & Pervasive" Flooding. What Could Go Wrong?

A Canadian-owned company is trying to get Virginia legislators to roll back the 30-year-old ban on uranium mining in Virginia so it can mine a multi-billion-dollar uranium deposit in Pittsylvania County. But a new study from the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League warns the site - upstream from four major drinking water supply intake points - is prone to frequent flooding:

The report contains maps of Coles Hill showing the locations of three FEMA flood hazard zones aligned with Mill Creek, Whitethorn Creek, and the Banister River, all of which flow through the Coles Hill site. The maps show the location of three historic flood events that occurred within the proposed mine and mill site, including two on record with the National Weather Service, as well as the location less than two miles away where flooding associated with Hurricane Fran was videotaped in 1996. Another map contains date-stamped photographs demonstrating pervasive flooding at the site in November, 2009. Another shows the location of a spring and several acres of wetlands on the site.

The League’s report links evidence of flooding at Coles Hill with warnings from the International Atomic Energy Agency. IAEA contradicts many industry assurances that uranium mill tailing disposal sites are essentially maintenance free, stating, “There is no such thing as 'fail-safe' facilities for tailings management. Neither regulations, design specifications, nor management systems can be relied upon in isolation to provide assurance against containment failure: all three must be applied, in a framework of quality assurance and post-closure care and maintenance, to deliver a high probability of tailings containment security.”

A uranium mine site that would leave at least 28 million tons of uranium waste in a flood-prone area upstream from the drinking water for tens of thousands of people? What could go wrong?

Learn more in this video & sign the petition to keep Virginia's ban on uranium mining at KeepTheBan.org:

Key Faith Group to Mobilize Members Behind Keeping Virginia's Uranium Mining Ban

Virginia's oldest faith-based advocacy group has announced it will put its weight behind keeping Virginia's ban on uranium mining:

Officials at the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy say they will be mobilizing activists across the state to lobby the General Assembly to continue a moratorium on uranium mining in the state.

Trieste Lockwood, director of the group’s power and light program, said that mining could harm drinking water, residents’ health and the economy by damaging agricultural, tourism and fishing industries if there is an accident.

Tests indicate that about 119 million pounds of uranium are located in Coles Hill, near Chatham, a small town in Pittsylvania County. A company pushing to mine the uranium, Virginia Uranium, says that it could be worth as much as $10 billion.

“The financial gain of one corporation is really simply not worth the longterm risks to so many people,” Lockwood said.

And what about the review of existing data some skittish General Assembly members say they're waiting for before making any decisions?

“We do not believe an unbiased study exists that suggests uranium is no longer radioactive and no longer has severe health consequences," she said.

For more on why Virginia's uranium mining ban is just as necessary today as it was when first implemented decades ago, check out KeepTheBan.org or read this excellent article by the Virginia Sierra Club's Mary Rafferty.