The Constitutional Court: the Sardinian moratorium on renewables is illegitimate

The moratorium on renewable energy production plants in Sardinia was unconstitutional: the judges of the Constitutional Court established this in a long and detailed ruling, issued on the basis of the appeal presented by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.

The law was passed in July by the Regional Council: it was decided to block the construction of any type of wind and photovoltaic plant on the Island for 18 months. The rule was repealed by the subsequent law on suitable areas, approved in December. But the Court established that it had to rule anyway because in the meantime the provision had had effects, as explained in the reasons for the ruling of unconstitutionality. The judges also put down in black and white a series of principles that must be kept in mind to understand how things could go in the future: the guiding light, on the matter, is considered to be the Draghi Decree.

The rejection concerns Article 3, the heart of the measure hastily enacted last summer to try to stem the energy assault on Sardinia.

The government argued that this was an invasion of legislative competences that are the responsibility of the State or, in any case, concurrent. The Region defended its position by invoking the Statute that establishes primary competence "in matters of construction and urban planning, as well as related matters concerning landscape protection".

According to the Constitutional Court, the pillar on which the assessment must be based is the Draghi decree on renewables. "The contested article 3 which introduces the ban on building plants for 18 months, pending the approval of the regional law identifying suitable areas", the provision states, "violates the principles" of that decree, "such as the achievement of the decarbonisation objectives by 2030 (paragraph 5), the ban on introducing moratoria (paragraph 6), and the start of facilitated authorisation procedures for the installation of RES in the areas temporarily identified as suitable (paragraph 8)".

The moratorium, in short, "although aimed at protecting the landscape, in establishing the ban on installing plants powered by renewable sources, conflicts with state legislation which contains fundamental principles which, as such, also apply to statutory powers in the field of energy production".