Tyrol’s governor Günther Platter (ÖVP) is making another attempt to speed up the EIA procedure for hydropower. Ten years is unreasonable.
The call for speeding up EIA procedures is not new. Business and industry have long been demanding that environmental impact assessments be accelerated. In view of the more than ten years that had to be spent for the approval of the Sellrain-Silz power plant, for example, the demand for faster procedures sounds more than logical in view of the current energy crisis. Even the EU Commission, which is not exactly known for reducing bureaucracy, has spoke out in May in favor of speeding up approval procedures for energy transition projects. The draft of a new EIA law from the Ministry of Climate Protection has been making the rounds in Vienna since Easter. The Greens quarrel too much between climate and environmental protection. Reducing CO₂ or protecting fish – that is the question here. Especially for federal states like Tyrol, which are sitting on a water treasure, this is incomprehensible. Also against the background that one wants to be energy autonomous by 2050. Large energy projects – from hydroelectric power to photovoltaics – will also be needed for this. For this reason, on the initiative of Tyrol’s Governor Günther Platter, the heads of the federal states got together and wrote a letter to Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer. “Everything has to go much faster,” says Platter in the “Krone” interview, the central demand. The federal states want to get involved in the new EIA law. The energy transition can only be mastered if major projects such as hydropower are also implemented in the field of renewable energy and innovations such as in the field of hydrogen are made possible. Independence from fossil fuels But how do Platter and his colleagues in Vienna intend to assert themselves? “We are united by the political will to expand renewable energy and to become independent of fossil fuels – especially gas from Russia”, Günther Platter remains diplomatic when asked by “Krone”. The governor then makes it clear that there are definitely differences between him and the Greens on the way to energy autonomy.Hydropower is a contribution to climate protection”With me there will be no standstill in the expansion of hydropower. Tyrol has not only been focusing on the expansion of renewable energies since the energy crisis triggered by the Ukraine war. We have been pioneers in the expansion of hydropower in the past – despite the stumbling block of long EIA procedures. Tirol persevered for eleven years with the expansion of the Sellrain-Silz power plant. If anyone is serious about climate protection, the construction of sustainable energy projects must be accelerated. It is up to the federal government to implement a practicable and simplified EIA law together with the federal states!”
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