Piombino, the Tar rejects the mayor’s appeal: the regasification terminal will be built

The Piombino regasification terminal has the green light from the Lazio Tar. With an ordinance approved today, the college of the administrative court rejected the request to suspend the authorization of the work released last October by the Extraordinary Commissioner Eugene Giani, president of the Tuscany region. The hearing to discuss the appeal on the merits will be held on 8 March.

“The procedural methods for authorizing the initiative in question”, explains the Tar in the ordinance, “are governed by legislation, which is characterized by the clear, eminently emergency content and to concern interventions which, already in the declaration of the law, appear to have connotations with a marked degree of specificity. For this reason, the conditions for accepting the request presented by the mayor of Piombino do not exist, Francis Ferrarielected with the Brothers of Italy.

The opposition to the work, supported by some environmental movements and local committees, was led by the mayor of the Tuscan city who hoped for the intervention of the government led by his own party to question the construction of the infrastructure. From Rome, however, after an initial moment of ambiguity, Fratelli d’Italia has repeatedly reiterated that the regasification terminal is necessary for the country’s energy securitywhich starting next spring will have to be able to introduce the LNG that it will receive from various countries in liquid form into the gas network to replace part of the Russian methane that has so far arrived via pipeline.

“After the first examination of the documentation offered – still notes the TAR – the process that led to the adoption of the enforced provision did not give evidence of obvious anomalies in the development of the procedure nor of incontrovertible preliminary deficiencies suitable to support the suspension of the contested measures, before reaching the complete resolution of the merits”. The judges then noted that “the feared risks for public safety related to the regasification terminal are, at present, not topical having regard to the fact that the Definitive Safety Report and the Integrated Environmental Authorization must be acquired before starting the activity and that, with reference to the works started in the SIN area, no significant contingencies or criticalities have emerged in regarding the conduct of the activities that will have to continue to be carried out in compliance with the detailed requirements and recommendations made by the competent bodies and included in the Commissioner’s Ordinance No. 140 of 10.25.2022″.

The regasification ship that will be moored in the port of Piombino for three years before being moved offshore, Golar Tundra was purchased by Snam at the instigation of the Draghi government last June for 330 million euros. In the world there are less than 50 floating units capable of transporting LNG and transforming it from liquid to gaseous, after the start of the conflict in Ukraine which prompted the countries of the European Union to free themselves from Russian gas, these platforms have been greatly courted by various companies . The Italian company has also managed to purchase another one which will be moored in Ravenna: the project was given the go-ahead at the beginning of November and work will begin in the new year. Both regasification plants can process up to 5 billion cubic meters of LNG per year.

In the decree authorizing the work, Commissioner Giani set a series of compensatory conditions in exchange for the green light: from reclamation for the iron and steel area to discounts on bills for citizens and businesses, up to infrastructural interventions for the road network. In this regard, the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security intervened today in hearing, Gilberto Pichetto Fratinsaying that “it is right for the state to take charge of the needs of the communities that provide such an important service to the country: it is a question of carrying out important redevelopment works, which I hope can be completed quickly”.

• Maria Carla Sicily

• Born in Cosenza in 1988, she has lived in Rome for more than ten years. Every year she thinks that she will leave the city of potholes and the Colosseum, but so far she has always found good reasons to stay. One of these is il Foglio, where you started working in 2017. you Today you are in charge of coordinating Foglio.it.