Despite the downpours which fell on Sunday April 28 on the Gard, they reached the Château Mourgues du Grès by the dozens. With their Young Farmers banners, drawings made by the hands of children, or posters displaying a skull, nearly 300 people are participating in the rally against a project for a very high voltage 400,000 volt overhead power line. The wine estate, located in Beaucaire, is one of the many agricultural properties which could see imposing electricity pylons 50 meters high appear on its plots. If the public consultation ended on April 7, on site, the mobilization is crystallizing. An online petition already has 25,000 signatures.
To achieve the objectives set by the State – reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 35% by 2030 and fuel the major announced projects for the production of hydrogen (H2V), low-carbon iron (GravitHy) or of solar panels (Carbon), the industrial-port zone (Zip) of Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône), which produces nearly 20 million tonnes of CO2 per year and counts in its ranks, with the ArcelorMittal steel site, the French champion in annual emissions (6.4 million tonnes), will have to significantly increase its electrical capacity. This industrial change promises the creation of several thousand new jobs. But it also ultimately implies a doubling of the current electricity consumption in the area.
To meet all of this demand, the Electricity Transmission Network (RTE) manager is therefore planning the installation and commissioning by 2028 of a new 400,000 volt overhead very high voltage electrical line, which would leave from Jonquières-Saint-Vincent (Gard) to reach Fos-sur-Mer. This infrastructure would cross the Camargue regional natural park, that of the Alpilles, and the Crau plain, classified Natura 2000. The project – it involves 180 pylons, each supporting around twenty cables – is estimated at 300 million euros; it should make it possible to transport electricity produced by power plants in the Rhône valley to Fos-sur-Mer.
Two routes are still under study. Whatever the final route chosen on June 28, it will have an impact on the landscapes of the two departments concerned. “We have nothing to gain, but everything to lose, protests Juan Martinez, the mayor (Socialist Party) of Bellegarde (Gard) and president of the Terres d’Argence community of communes. We are the big losers! Our agriculture and tourism will be strongly impacted, our land devalued, our activity affected and our landscape scarred. »
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