Head left! The bill to speed up the installation of wind turbines and solar panels in France arrives in the Assembly Chamber on Monday, the macronists hoping to find allies among socialists and environmentalists after relying on LR to get it adopted their previous texts.
After relying on LR to have its previous texts adopted, the majority is changing foot this time with this bill which aims to increase France’s use of renewable energies (EnR). A subject made hot by the news, marked by fears of power cuts in January.
During the review in committee, “we have taken up proposals from deputies, in particular from the left and from LIOT (Freedom, Independents, Overseas and Territories)”argued the Minister of Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher in the Journal du Dimanche. “All the conditions are met for them to vote for this text”she pleaded.
The executive, which only has a relative majority in the Palais Bourbon, invokes the experience of the “compromise” found in the Senate, where the text was widely adopted with support from the right.
“I have confidence in the national representation and I see that a fairly broad agreement has been reached in the Senate. So I am confident”assured Saturday at Parisian Emanuel Macron.
The Head of State has set the challenges, by 2050: the tenfold increase in solar energy production capacity to exceed 100 gigawatts (GW) and the deployment of 50 offshore wind farms to reach 40 GW .
For the time being, solar and wind represent only 19.3% of gross final energy consumption, already below the target set for 2020 of 23%, and France is still too dependent on energy imported fossils.
But in the Assembly, the LR deputies intend to reintroduce measures which the Senate has partly renounced: a right of veto for mayors on new projects, as well as the prohibition of wind turbines at sea less than 40 kilometers from the coast.
“Seeing the LRs of the Assembly go against the LRs of the Senate, it’s always surprising”squeaks Renaissance rapporteur Pierre Cazeneuve to AFP.
Lamenting the “lecture court-termiste” and the “red lines” of the LRs, Mr. Cazeneuve believes that their strategy will be difficult to defend because “it’s a matter of energy sovereignty, purchasing power, jobs and industries”.
The RN also wants to challenge the text, as opposed to wind turbines, of “intermittent energies that make us dependent on the weather in addition to being dependent on other countries”accuses MP Pierre Meurin.
Benevolence on the left?
On the left, the socialists have already expressed their view “rather benevolent” and environmentalists shouldn’t vote against it, even though they say the bill “is still largely insufficient”.
As a sign of pledge, Ms. Pannier-Runacher claims to join them in their desire to use “to the maximum the areas already artificialized to install renewable energies: roofs, car parks, along the rail and river tracks…”
“And we are working on setting up an renewable energy mediator, proposed by ecologists”further argued the minister.
The rebellious deplore them for being “far from the text of ecological planning and popular ecology that the country needs”.
The review in committee was marked by the deletion of a key article aimed at limiting certain legal remedies against renewable energy projects. The executive intends to reintroduce this article 4.
Green deputies, LR or RN see it as a threat to the “biodiversity”which is disputed by the presidential camp, which claims to want to avoid “litigation that does not succeed”.
Often technical, this bill addresses a battery of subjects including agrivoltaism, that is to say the installation of solar panels on agricultural land, with a balance to be found between energy and food sovereignty.
On the NGO side, WWF calls for “overcome partisan postures” pour “find an agreement”. The wind industry for its part urged MPs on Saturday to amend “significantly” the text for “enable France to meet its own energy needs”.