The mayors' opposition to energy speculation has become a rallying cry across the region. From Friuli to Sicily, via Sardinia, 273 tricolor bands are fighting against the wind turbine and solar panel business. "Because self-production, on which we all agree, is one thing," is the shared sentiment, the collective drive to fight. "It's another thing entirely to grab national subsidies in the name of environmental protection, when in practice, the exact opposite happens: it's the ecosystem itself that suffers the greatest devastation."
The memberships
To date, ten Sardinian municipalities have joined the coordination initiative launched at the beginning of the year by activist Antonio de Felice . The epicenter is Puglia, "one of the regions hardest hit by the onslaught of renewables." Sun and wind abound there, as throughout Southern Italy, including our island. Thus, Orgosolo, Genoni, Zeddiani, Guspini, Busachi, Uta, Isili, Las Plassas, Nurallao, and Villanovatulo have said yes to the interregional call. One of the spokespersons is Angelo Radica , mayor of Tollo, a town of around 4,000 inhabitants in a vineyard-filled region in the province of Chieti. But the alarm is being raised as far as Northern Italy. "One of the risks of energy speculation," explains the mayor, "is land consumption." It's an unequal battle with agriculture, which faces the risk of being forced into increasingly confined spaces by the advance of wind turbines and panels. "We're not against renewables. We support environmentally friendly wind and photovoltaic development. Therefore, we recognize suitable areas as rooftops, existing buildings, and already compromised areas, such as industrial areas. This is a firm commitment also established in the National Energy and Climate Plan (Pniec). The problem is that, at the moment, this provision is completely unfulfilled. In our municipalities, the devastation of the landscape and the land is advancing.
The horizon
In Genoni, the head of the Municipality is Gianluca Serra . "A piece of Sardinia that the onslaught of renewables risks erasing," he says. "Speculators are aiming to build an electrical substation and electrochemical storage facilities in our territory. Lithium batteries within six to seven hundred meters of the last houses. In total, about thirty hectares to be sacrificed on the false altar of renewables. This is not the future. This is destruction." Serra has joined the Interregional Coordination to spread "Genoni's story outside the island, in a sort of information group that shares experiences and values." With one conviction: "The 211,000 signatures at Pratobello demonstrate that we Sardinians are ahead of everyone else in defending our territory, but it's a good thing the mayors' movement goes beyond the sea."
Yet another appeal
Pasquale Mereu, one of the promoters of the popular initiative, returns to Pratobello to reiterate that "the Regional Council cannot continue, as it has for a year, to bury its head in the sand. Energy speculation remains an unsolved problem, both on our island and in the rest of Italy. This is why Orgosolo joined the Interregional Committee: protecting the territory concerns us all. Protecting the landscape has nothing to do with personal interests. Sardinia belongs to everyone, and together we have a duty to protect it from the appetites of multinationals."