Piombino, the Lazio Regional Administrative Court postpones the hearing for the regasification terminal to 5 July

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The Golar Tundra regasifier ship, purchased by Snam to deal with Italy’s energy emergency following Russia’s cut in gas supplies, will arrive in the port of Piombino in a few weeks (it departed from Singapore) and will be put into operation , as scheduled, in early May. The appeal filed by the Municipality of Piombino, against the operation due to possible environmental and safety risks for the population, will not in fact stop the installation because the hearing on the merits, scheduled for today 8 March 2023 before the Lazio TAR, has been postponed to 5 July.

The Municipality’s appeal concerned the commissioner’s order which led to the release of the authorisation. The discussion before the administrative judges was postponed, according to what emerged, for two technical reasons: there were no terms of defense envisaged by the law with respect to the second of the reasons added to the appeal that had been presented; the appellant Municipality, led by the mayor-lawyer Francesco Ferrari (Brothers of Italy), represented the need to challenge the decree issuing the integrated environmental authorisation, which however has yet to be adopted.

“We are proceeding with the works, because we are not interrupted by anyone”, commented the president of the Tuscany Region, Eugenio Giani, who is also the government commissioner for the regasification terminal, praising the construction of the eight kilometer pipeline which will connect the ship to the national network of the gas, launched by Snam.

The mayor of Piombino is not at all discouraged: «Today the TAR was forced to order this postponement – he stated – as Snam has still not presented the final report on the safety of the plant, which is essential to allow the Court to make a decision in merit to the project. The hundreds of pages of technical reports that we have drawn up point the finger precisely to the absence of guarantees for the protection of an entire community: with this referral, the TAR certifies that our arguments did not deserve to be rejected but, if anything, deepened».

Snam does not comment on the decision of the Lazio Regional Administrative Court on the Piombino (Livorno) regasification terminal, but informs that the postponement of the hearing to 5 July has not been arranged due to the company’s failure to submit the documentation but due to the failure to comply with the deadlines minimum defense established by the code of administrative process, since the notification of the second act of additional reasons proposed by the municipality of Piombino against the report of the Hague of 19 January last was carried out only on 14 February. The activities for the commissioning of the regasification vessel, it is also explained, continue as scheduled.