The high tension lines in full processing phase that would link Aragon and Catalonia continue to cause serious clashes between the central and regional administrations. The Minister of Climate Action has announced that the Government is considering using the environmental green light given by the Central Government to the 400 kV Grañén-Pierola line, one of the three major lines promoted by the Forestalia company to bring renewable energy from Aragon to Catalonia
David Mascort indicated that the Government “is studying taking all legal and administrative measures at its disposal” to oppose the 400 kV Grañén-Pierola power line project, which has overcome this past Monday, the 18th, the main obstacle in its processing: the environmental impact statement
The line has a length of 135 kilometers in Catalan territory (of 272 kilometers in total), and affects sensitive spaces for biodiversity, which is why the Department of Climate Action has issued three unfavorable reports on the infrastructure.
This is the main high voltage line projected from Aragon, as it has 3,700 MW of renewable energy power associated with it (more than 3,000 MW in Aragon and the rest in Catalonia). “It is inconceivable that an environmental impact statement that has negative biodiversity reports is approved,” said Mascort. The work is evaluated by the Ministry, which is the substantive Administration but in the consultation process it includes sectoral environmental reports (under the jurisdiction of the Generalitat in this case).
Sources from the wind sector recall that an environmental impact declaration “is not contestable”, so it would be necessary in all cases for the prior administrative authorization to be published, which, at most, must occur three months after the environmental impact declaration (according to determines the royal decree of 2020 that establishes these administrative deadlines)
The reports prepared by the General Directorate of Environmental Policies and Natural Medicine base their negative position on the insufficiencies of the project as well as a lack of information (lack of study of other options. Likewise, it claims lack of monitoring of protected species, inadequacy of the scale to evaluate landscape impacts and deficiencies in the evaluation of cumulative impacts. The company’s own documentation admits that the line would affect more than 13 km of critical spaces for the Bonelli’s eagle, an impact that cannot be compensated.
Mascort has regretted the lack of “institutional loyalty” of the Ministry towards the Generalitat. The counselor also criticized the “disorderly and chaotic” processing that is being carried out by the Ministry, “which is not paying attention to reports that in certain projects are mandatory and linked; unfavorable reports that are not taken into account… They are changing the rules of the game regarding the processing of these lines, and what is clear is that it is not to guarantee that the projects are done well,” he points out.
In addition to the Grañén-Pierola line, the Spanish Government is processing the project of two other lines with similar characteristics: the Valmuel-Begues/Garraf and Laluenga-Isona lines, on which the State has made favorable environmental impact declarations, although conditioned to the meaning of the biodiversity report issued by the Department of Climate Action on the effect of these infrastructures on spaces and species.
This type of project “puts at risk the transition towards a new, fairer, more sustainable and democratic energy model that Catalonia is experiencing, because they mortgage large areas of territory to build power lines that only benefit a private (owner) and do not respond to the model.” of territorial integration that the Government expects for the country’s energy infrastructure,” the councilor concluded.
