Renewable energies: Pannier-Runacher unfavorable to the right of veto of mayors proposed by LR


The examination in the Senate of the bill on the acceleration of renewable energies will start this Wednesday.

A few hours before the start of the Senate’s examination of the bill on the acceleration of renewable energies, Agnès Pannier-Runacher was critical this Wednesday morning towards a provision proposed by Les Républicains on this text. “I am a little bit attentive or vigilant in relation to measures which will consist in giving mayors in co-visibility, that is to say all the mayors who are around the municipality which would host a project, a right of veto on renewable energies even though we have no information on the project“said the Minister of Energy Transition on France Inter.

This refers to an amendment tabled by LR and voted on in committee last week, which profoundly modifies the government’s bill. It plans to give mayors – and not just those who host a project on their territory – the power to modify a project for the installation of renewable energies, or even to oppose it outright. This idea is not new: in June 2021, during the examination of the Climate bill, the right had already had an amendment adopted giving more power to local executives to authorize or block the installation of wind turbines in a territory. The government opposed this change, as did the left.

49.3 “not on the agenda”

Even before having looked at the economic impact, the impact on biodiversity, the impact on landscapes, we would allow mayors who do not welcome renewable energies to give their opinion“, challenged Agnès Pannier-Runacher. “Mayors don’t ask“, she added.

The government should therefore try to reconsider this provision in public session in the Senate, if we are to believe the minister’s comments. Faced with the risks of blocking the text – which should arrive at the beginning of December in the National Assembly – Agnès Pannier-Runacher said she did not plan to resort to 49.3. “49.3 for the moment is not on the agenda for a simple reason: when I listen to people on the ground and when I listen to political groups in the secrecy of their offices, they are in support of this text. I do not believe that we must give room to political postures (…) while the people who propose these texts are themselves not very sure that they serve the interests of the French“, she said.

In the Senate, the provision added by the right will be debated: several amendments have already been tabled to remove it, by the RDSE group, the Socialist, Ecologist and Republican group and by the government. “The mayor has full latitude to develop a project setting up on his territory […] Moreover, the possibility for a mayor of a municipality with “visibility” on the project to issue a veto on the project hosted in a municipality other than his own could undermine the principle of free administration of local authorities“, argues the explanatory memorandum of the executive.


SEE ALSO – Bill to accelerate renewable energies: “The State is trying to force a passage”, for Angélique Négroni



Source link -94