"Treated like a colony, ready to challenge the decree"

«This decree cancels our energy autonomy and treats Sardinia like a colony. If corrections are not made, we will defend our interests in all offices ».

The President of the Region Christian Solinas is still confident in a step backwards by the Government on the energy decree approved two days ago.

President, the Unione Sarda has long represented to the Sardinians, and it has done so also through a special edition, the fact that the island risks becoming an energy colony of Italy. Then came the Prime Minister's decree. Do you feel a government commissioner on these issues?

"This decree does not satisfy the vital needs of Sardinia either from the point of view of the users of the productive activities or from the point of view of the rebalancing of an intolerable disparity that we have suffered for decades that affects all citizens".

Are you referring to the increased cost of energy?

«Yes, I am talking about the possibility of competing on an equal footing with the rest of the country. And we have said that it does not satisfy us for three reasons ».

Which?

"One is the tariff, because it does not achieve certainty in the tariff equalization between citizens and businesses and it would even seem to divide Sardinia into two large portions: one with about 178 Municipalities that have gas distribution basins created or under construction that in based on what Arera will decide, they should have an equalized tariff - even if it is not guaranteed that it is equal to the other areas of the country - another with all the other Municipalities, with a total of about 600 thousand inhabitants, for which there is no it would be no equalization and it would be at market rate ".

The second one?

"The energy autonomy of the Region is effectively canceled".

Also because Sardinia already produces more energy than it consumes.

"Not only. We have already reached and exceeded the targets for production from renewable sources. This has not translated into a real benefit for citizens and businesses, that is, in a rewarding decrease in the cost of energy, but has led to higher bills and paradoxically a progressive compromise of the regional territory. Someone has even hypothesized the transition without any transition from fossil fuels to fully electric powered by renewable sources ".

Enel's project?

"Yes, they would like to close the Grazia Deledda power plant in Sulcis, in an area already tormented by many industrial crises and unemployment, and transform it into a storage center with large batteries containing lithium, a highly polluting material, which should guarantee the 'accumulation of wind and photovoltaic energy. This model does not allow the realization of the third requirement that we have always requested, namely the stability and robustness of our energy supply system ».

In the meantime, in Sicily, Enel is converting coal-fired plants into gas-fired plants.

"It means that probably through the Tyrrhenian link we will send the quotas of energy from renewable sources to the rest of the country but we will need to acquire energy from Sicilian thermoelectric plants in the conversion phase to gas to guarantee stability to our production system".

Yet someone has come to argue that through this decree a path towards gas and methanisation would be initiated.

“Instead this decree canceled the principle of loyal collaboration between the State and the Region because it ignored the agreement, provided for by our constitution and of our autonomy competences. I would like to remind you that on measures relating to the production, transport and distribution of energy, it is attributed to competition between the State and the Region. This alone configures an attitude of prevarication and colonialism that we Sardinians know well, because we have had to suffer it several times over the centuries. Today I believe we are facing a new form of easement in using the territory of Sardinia to guarantee the rest of the country the achievement of the objectives set in the Paris agreements in terms of decarbonisation and phase out ».

What have you done to avoid it?

“We asked to reconcile the reasons for the autonomy of the island and effective planning of the territory and the needs of the state in terms of decarbonisation. It is unthinkable that there are no compensations for Sardinia. As if we were the last colony in the country ».

And what are the compensations he talks about?

«Real advantages for all Sardinians. But this decree does not carry any and imposes the sacrifice of the territory for national interests ».

Will you ask to rewrite or modify the decree?

"We ask that corrections be made that allow us to identify clear compensations for Sardinia, benefits in terms of tariffs for all citizens and businesses and above all the possibility for Sardinia to plan its energy structure. If all this is not heard, we will defend Sardinia's interests in all locations and we will do so with the certainty that it is a fundamental match. I'll add one thing ».

Which?

"This decree was read by those who had an interest in supporting it only from the point of view of gas, but it contains a key point: postponing the possibility of supply and attributing it to the outcome of the tenders for the Capacity market, the conversion of the coal-fired gas plants. Only in the regasification vessels, one in Porto Torres, the other in Portovesme, the possibility of supplying first for the industry and then for the basins but it is not said that at the same time the stock of energy from renewable sources has been attributed to such an extent to be determined that even before the law on suitable areas can be made, anyone can place wind and photovoltaic systems throughout the region. This is what we need to focus on ”.

Here too you have been bypassed.

“We have argued that a virtuous path of loyal collaboration should first have foreseen the implementation decree of the Government on suitable areas, which would have allowed the Region to adopt its own regional law to identify them. It is a question of finding a balance between the location of the power plants for the production of energy and the reasons for environmental and landscape protection and for the urban destination of the territory. It is unthinkable that the vocation for primary production of some particularly fertile soils will be replaced only because it is more convenient to put photovoltaic panels on them. We need a criterion ».

The decree does not seem to take into account the distortion of the energy scenarios determined by the war.

"It is one of the flaws in the approach of this provision. The war and the sanctions force the country to reschedule the supply of 40 billion cubic meters of gas to ensure the maintenance of the status quo and this will determine radical changes both in the phase out of coal and in the supply system. Currently in Italy there are only three regasification plants in La Spezia, Livorno and Rovigo which treat only 9 billion cubic meters. It will be necessary to strengthen these and create new regasification areas, but not on an island that does not have methane and does not have to maintain any status quo ».

In short, gas will not arrive in Sardinia in the next few years. In the meantime, we are facing an invasion of renewables.

«Through the Tyrrhenian link and the strengthening of Sacoi and Sapei, the rest of Italy will reach the objectives of energy production from renewable sources in Sardinia. Faced with a reasoning of this type, it is unthinkable that the State and the Region will not find a shared solution that provides for clear and guaranteed compensations. Do you think that in Germany a minister of the Greens has announced that its transition will last until 2035 through a gradual expansion of renewables and the strengthening of the hydrogen strategy, thus giving a certain perspective to its production system. I wonder what credible elements can make the Italian government argue that it is possible to complete the phase out of coal in 2025 ”.

Have you asked the government and parliament for the support of your League allies to assert your arguments? Were there any interlocutions?

"The Councilor for Industry talked with the Ministry of Ecological Transition, but at a certain moment the minister, after long negotiations and formal acts of the Region, incomprehensibly decided to sign this text by making the fundamental passage contained up to the last one disappear draft that we have seen, that is the agreement of the Region ".

Among the issues that you brought to the Government table was the backbone for methane, which will also be useful tomorrow for hydrogen?

“We recalled that there was a pact between the region and the state that had to be respected regardless of who was in the government. So much so that the southern trunk of the ridge was quickly approved. Then the project was abandoned due to the schizophrenic initiatives of various state subsidiaries that have fielded different visions of the energy future and the future of the island. Let me be clear: the Region is not the body that has slowed down the process, as some argue. Our line has always been clear and we have fulfilled all our obligations, we are the injured party and we have undergone a decided process far from here ».

Will the Tyrrhenian link sanction the end of our energy autonomy?

«The Tyrrhenian link cannot be offered as a gift to the Sardinians. It is a large infrastructure investment made by Terna but which responds to the stability needs of the national electricity system ".

On the other hand, we will have hundreds of tank wagons that will cross the streets of Sardinia in conditions of insecurity.

«It is a solution that we have opposed immediately. Anyone who knows our road system knows that it is a hallucinatory plan. We strongly said from the beginning that there should have been, if anything, an incentive to conclude the territorial basins and ensure that every municipality could be supplied under conditions of equality. Thus there is a risk of fueling a disparity between municipalities. It is unacceptable ».

Do you intend to propose observations also against the offshore plant projects in the Golfo degli Angeli, in the Sulcis and in Gallura?

«Yes, it is unthinkable that we should explain to the citizens of smaller municipalities that there are problems in replacing a shutter, but there is no problem of landscape impact if huge structures are built within fragile ecosystems to be protected. We need an immediate table between the State and the Region to find a yardstick that is understandable to citizens ”.

Could the Galsi project make a comeback?

«Yes, because I believe that it is wrong in principle to think of having a single source of energy supply. Having more options guarantees better rates and greater stability ».

The Government said yes to the restructuring of the Saccargia wind farm against the opinions of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, the Region and against a sentence of the TAR. What are you going to do?

«We are evaluating with the legal area which initiatives to implement. I repeat, it is not tolerable that citizens are harassed with a thousand constraints while the large multinationals live in a sort of free zone ».

Fabio Manca