Bob McDonnell gets a lot of national press coverage. That’s to be expected, as, despite the bleatings of the RTD’s Jeff Schapiro, McDonnell still stands a fair chance of being a part of the Romney ticket this November. The Governor’s two most recent appearances in the Wall Street Journal are proof that Bob still matters.
But not all national coverage is created equal. In an editorial, the editors donned their neo-con fright wigs and lambasted McDonnell for having the temerity to make only small changes to Del. Bob Marshall’s bill barring state law enforcement personnel from detaining citizens without trial.
For the Journal, this was akin to allowing terrorists to roam the countryside without a care in the world. According to the Journal, it was a “rollover hardly speaks well of Mr. McDonnell’s bona fides as a potential vice president.”
If standing up against unfettered federal power lessens one’s chances of becoming vice president, then the job really is worth less than a bucket of warm [spit].
The Journal made amends for its editorial hissy fit by giving McDonnell space for an op-ed of his own on energy policy. In it, McDonnell takes the current President and his administration to task for preventing Virginia from exploiting offshore oil and gas resources, and generating revenues that would have been used, in part, to fund alternative supplies:
During my term as governor, we have focused on making Virginia the energy capital of the East Coast. In just two years our state has taken aggressive actions to harness the power of offshore wind and promote greater utilization of solar energy. Had the president not stopped Virginia’s offshore oil and gas efforts, a portion of the revenue from those efforts would have gone—under a law passed during my term of office—to renewable energy research.
After reading the entire piece, though, there was one glaring omission from the oil, gas, wind and solar list.
Can you spot it?
No, not algae.
Uranium.
It’s been largely forgotten now, but in the run-up to the General Assembly session, it appeared that Virginia might finally lift its 30 year-old ban on uranium mining, and begin the process of creating the rules and regulations necessary to exploit the Coles Hill deposit in Pittsylvania county.
Or it seemed possible until Republican legislators balked at the idea and Mr. McDonnell punted on the issue. One of the largest uranium deposits on the East Coast, which, if mined, would create jobs, taxes and the other benefits one would also expect to reap from offshore oil and gas development, remains idled for at least another year.
Not because of the President, EPA administrators or other assorted federal meddlers. But because of Virginia Republicans.
The commonwealth may, one day, become a leading energy producer in the eastern part of the country. But that will only happen once the native political class stops aping the White House’s energy tactics and allows uranium mining to go forward.
