A rift is opening up over suitable areas between the government and the Sardinia Region, the leader in defining the territorial criteria: "I said it clearly and I repeat it: Sardinia will not be fooled."
The President of the Region Alessandra Todde does not mince her words, raising her tone and also on social media attacking the government and the minister Pichetto Fratin on the map of suitable areas which does not take into account the observations presented by the Region ten days ago on the occasion of a summit.
«At this moment - he wrote - our territory is under speculative attack and we believe it is necessary to defend it with every possible tool. We are convinced in favor of the ecological transition, which will allow us to do without coal power plants that pollute our territories. We will thus be able to safeguard the health of the Sardinians who live in those territories and combat the climate change whose effect we are already suffering, with the drought which threatens our activities and our lives. However, we are totally against those who, exploiting words such as environmental protection or sustainability, barbarically speculate and profit from territory, soil and landscape ."
The instances
After the meeting last May 21st at the Ministry of the Environment, the road seemed to be all downhill. Instead, the draft broke the balance that had been created.
The three requests brought by Todde to Mase concerned, first of all, the so-called burden sharing, i.e. the share of renewables that the region must take on. " We asked us to decide where, because we have identity assets to protect, suitable agricultural territories that we must defend and also a landscape context that must be shared."
The second thing requested is related to offshore wind farms , «which could fall within the authorizations: even if they are international waters, therefore beyond 12 miles, they must be considered to have a 100% impact on Sardinia, because they affect our economy, our fishing, on tourism, on activities that are ours." In the draft, however, to achieve the power objectives the intention is to take into account «40% of the nominal power of the newly built offshore renewable source plants entered into operation from 1 January 2021 until 31 December the reference year whose connection works to the electricity grid are carried out in the territory of the Region or autonomous province". A proposal, that of the executive, "unacceptable" for Sardinia.
Finally, the third point concerns growth. «At the moment we have authorizations that exceed the limit of 6.2 set until 2030 by the government and European legislation and on that we have told» the executive to «stay out of it - he explains -: we have to decide how we want to grow from an energy point of view , how to organize our territory and organize energy production on the basis of our economy. We will do it with an energy plan and organic growth."
The reactions
Sources from the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security reveal surprise at this sudden increase in tone : «The discussions on the Suitable Areas decree continued informally even over the weekend in a constructive spirit. President Todde's position is therefore surprising ." At Mase, however, "there is confidence that tomorrow, during the Conference of the Regions, the dialogue can proceed in a serene and positive manner in order to reach a shared position".
(Unioneonline/D)
