Tobacco blow on Friday in the Senate floor on the bill to accelerate renewable energy: in great confusion, the senators gave up the 40 km distance from the coasts to wind turbines in the sea, which they had presented in committee. The Senate voted 186 votes against 151 amendments removing this controversial addition, which the government opposes.
The senators also voted by a show of hands on an amendment by Nadège Havet (RDPI with a Renaissance majority) that restores the mechanism proposed by the Government aimed at pooling public debates on the location of projects in order to accelerate their development. The rapporteur LR Didier Mandelli, for his part, wanted to draw up a map of the areas destined to house installations on a national scale. Above all, he planned to give preference to settlement areas located at a minimum distance of 40 km from the coast.
A route that would concentrate all the projects on the Atlantic side
The votes were preceded by almost an hour of recess and long hesitation in the chamber about the method to follow to get out of the mess. “You have to have done ‘Senate plus eight’ to understand how a text develops in these conditions”, concluded Cédric Vial (LR).
“There we write the law directly (…), the central question, which is political, is ‘we stay 40 km away’”, asked Fabien Gay (CRCE with a communist majority). With the veto right of the mayors, resolved on Thursday, this question of the distance of the offshore wind farms was one of the conflictive points of the text.
A target of 50 offshore wind farms by 2050
For Pierre Médevielle (Independents), it was “simply a funeral”. “Don’t clip the wings of the French offshore wind industry,” urged Jean-Michel Houllegatte (PS).
On the other hand, the senators wanted to impose this minimum distance of 40 km, or even more. “The visual impact is considerable”, argued Laurence Garnier (LR), evoking “a surprising enveloping effect” of the Le Croisic wind farm (Loire-Atlantique).
The goal set by President Emmanuel Macron for 2050 is to deploy 50 offshore wind farms to reach 40 GW. The Senate must complete the first reading of this bill by Saturday, which will then go to the National Assembly.
Source: BFM TV
