Wind power, an unappealable sentence. Government-Region, now everything changes

Unsuitable areas

The device of the sentence is as clear as it is explicit: "The resolution of the regional council - the Judges write - indicates the areas" unsuitable "for the installation of wind farms, without however placing any constraint or foreclosure of a general nature, limiting itself only to indicating - for the benefit of private operators - the areas where there is "a high probability of a negative outcome of the assessments in the authorization phase", therefore the buffer zones cannot be interpreted as mandatory minimum distances ". The togates then reaffirm the full validity of the type of blades governed by the regional resolution: "Wind power plants are distinguished by" size "and" power of the wind turbines ", as the greater difficulty of setting up large wind power plants is evident , like the one that is the subject of this judgment ".

Primary competence

And, finally, the Judges decline the essential point, the Constitutional one, which also makes the government's claims to invalidate the statutory prerogatives of the Region useless through ordinary rules or provisional decrees. The togates write: "The Autonomous Region of Sardinia, with the resolution of the Giunta, has implemented the primary legislative competence, provided for by the statutes, on the subject of Landscape-Environmental Protection, listing the areas not suitable for the outcome of an in-depth investigation on each individual site of interest, which, quite legitimately, can also include the reasons for protecting the cultural identity of the population settled in the area ".

Armored Sardinia

This is the passage that blocks 98.8% of the regional territory on the constitutional level. An "unsuitability" clause indispensable for the sacrosanct protection of exclusive prosceniums and landscapes, monuments and identity assets. Having recognized that protection as impregnable means that even the government decree, the one concerning the mega wind farm located between the territories of Nulvi and Ploaghe, always close to the Abbey of Saccargia and the Valle dei Nuraghi, will have to give way before such an obvious decision of the Supreme Administrative Court.

Draghi Decree

That provision of the Draghi government, the content of which is still unknown, has so far only been announced. As soon as it is published in the Official Gazette, a new battleground will open up with regional institutions. Until now, the potential confrontation with the State had seen the Constitutional Court as a battlefield, but, given the ruling of the Council of State last Monday, announced in advance by the Sardinian Union, the dispute could immediately move to the administrative judicial level. The first conflict in the classrooms of an administrative court, that of Lazio in this case, will concern the decree approved motu proprio by the President of the Council of Ministers with the planned wind invasion of the Erg, between Nulvi and Ploaghe. An area similar to that rejected by the Council of State, with the same monuments and similar landscape and identity values, with an impact that would be even more devastating thanks to 27 new very large generators, almost 200 meters high. It is here that the sentence of the Council of State will measure the full weight of the institutional conflict. On that provision, the Region will have two alternative or simultaneous ways available: to appeal to the Constitutional Court, raising a conflict of attribution or to resort to administrative jurisdiction. The Tar road is the one that, in the light of the ruling of the highest administrative judges, makes it easier and quicker for the Region to defend its statutory and constitutional prerogatives. Now, it is certain, the confrontation with the State will move to the courtrooms: the only way left to assert rights and respect for the Nuraghi Island.