Reassurance and new accusations: the last chapter of the struggle between Cingolani e i environmental movements it is fought with blows of tissues to agencies and press releases. One tries to put water on the fire, the others rekindle the controversy. Needless to say, the theme is sea drilling. Following the expiry of the deadline for the approval of the general planning tool for hydrocarbon extractions (Pitesai) and with the specter of a new start of offshore drilling activities by the companies of Oil&Gas, in fact, the ministry of Ecological transition tried to defuse the accusations, ensuring that no new hydrocarbon exploration and drilling activities will be authorized before the final approval of the Pitesai. Furthermore, according to the version provided by the ministry to the press agencies, no new activities will start until the plan is in place, because even the companies that already have authorizations valid will wait to have the plan, so as not to risk looking for gas where they will not be able to extract it. The environmental movements do not think so, which respond point by point – and law in hand – to the findings coming from the Mite, even asking for the resignation of Cingolani.
The version of the Ministry of Ecological Transition – How long will it take to get the plan? According to ministerial sources, it will take at least a couple of months to definitively approve the document in Unified Conference State-Regions. The same sources, then, provided a different reconstruction on the expiry of the terms for the approval of Pitesai: for the technicians of Cingolani, the document did not have to be definitively approved on September 30th, but only transmitted by Mite to the Unified State Regions Conference. Which the Mite did regularly yesterday. At this point, it is up to the Regions to make their additions to the Plan. After that, the document will be definitively approved in the Unified Conference, which will take at least two months. As for the moratorium on new authorizations for the search and extraction of hydrocarbons, decided by Ministry of the ecological transition pending the approval of Pitesai, this will remain in force and the Ministry will not authorize any new activities. To hear the Mitefurthermore, those already authorized previously will not leave anyway, because no company (in the opinion of the Mite) will risk investing in fields without the certainty that the Pitesai will then allow their exploitation.
I No Triv: “These reconstructions sound like a real mockery” – A reconstruction bitterly contested by both the Greens and the National Coordination No Triv. For the latter, the reconstruction of the ministry and Cingolani’s declarations on the possibility of approving PiTESAI as soon as possible “more than appearing reassuring, they sound like a real mockery”. According to the No Trivs, “the minister and i components of its staff know very well the text of the law 12/2019 and they know perfectly well that, since the moratorium ceased, from 1 October the activities related to permits of Research already in force as well as the administrative procedures of research and prospecting requests already started on the date of 15/12/2018 ″. For this reason, moreover, the accusations did not refer to any new activities of extraction and research, but to those already authorized and suspended in 2018 with the Milleproroghe decree. The No Triv, then, address the government directly, with the first Draghi in the head: according to them, the executive and the ministers “are aware of two circumstances: Cingolani could have adopted the PiTESAI for marine areas only, as law 12 does not require the acquisition of the Agreement in Unified Conference, but it did not. The Minister – is the accusation – did not intend to respect the law on purpose; any Plan will be adopted at a later date than September 30th and, therefore, in violation of the law, it will still be illegitimate and, as such, it can be challenged above all by those Oil & Gas companies whose activities fall within areas classified as unsuitable by the Plan, with all that ensues (disputes and claims for compensation) “. Then the final accusation: “Government choices intentionally inconsistent aside, on the political level someone will have to answer for all this or not? And will anyone else in Parliament, especially among those forces who strongly wanted the approval of the law on PiTESAI and the moratorium, want to ask Draghi to account for what has not been deliberately done? “. Easy to see how i recipients of these questions are not only the ministers and the government, but also those forces that are said to be environmentalists and who support Draghi and his team.
Green Europe: “Pitesai had to be approved by 30 September, the law is clear” – No less tough is the stance of Europe Verde. “The Minister of Ecological Transition should get better advice from his offices: art. 11ter of law 12/2019, as amended by the Milleproroghe decree of February 2021, provides for the approval of Pitesai by 30 September 2021. After this deadline, the research permits already authorized will take effect again and the administrative procedures for the authorization applications for cultivation and for new research permits resume – reads a note from the national co-spokespersons of Europa Verde , Angelo Bonelli ed Eleonora Evi. “This is what we challenge the Minister, who, in evident difficulty, tries to confuse the citizens through interpretations that do not hold up from a legal and legislative point of view”. For Bonelli and Evi the facts are simple: “From today, 1st October – they continue – the companies whose research authorizations had been frozen will be able to resume their activities without the need to obtain any deed from the Ministry. We find it truly bizarre that the minister, in a statement, argues that the companies will not start – thus confirming that we have reason – research activities because they have no interest in risking being stopped by Pitesai. The Minister he must know – Bonelli and Evi conclude – that any company may ask to declare the legitimacy of Pitesai illegal in the Courts, as it was approved outside the terms established by law. In conclusion, we invite the Minister to read the law: he will be able to verify that it expressly provides that the Pitesai was approved by 30 September. We never expected so much superficiality by a Minister of Republic“.