A law, or rather a proposal, full of mysteries and black holes, subterfuges and infinite pitfalls. Each step of the Bill, approved for now only by the Regional Council, is a succession of derogations and contradictions, from fully embracing the Draghi Decree to contradicting it with rules that have been declined without any legal support. The underlying premise, even in the detailed examination of the provision, can never escape the first flaw: according to national rules, sealed by the Constitutional Court, "unsuitable" areas can become "suitable" through ordinary procedures, rather than accelerated ones.
Random rules
The mere normative exercise of a law that sets out the details on "suitable" and "unsuitable" areas is therefore a de facto useless step, because no indication contained in the provision can ever be stringent. An emblematic fact marked by an unavoidable presupposition: any hypothesis of "prohibition" contained in the definition of suitable areas is totally random, indeed censored, precisely because it is excluded from the key law to which it conforms, the Draghi Decree. In practice, many "fireworks", but no concrete measure capable of truly containing and stopping the speculative "escalation" to the detriment of Sardinia. If, as mentioned, the basic limit of the consonance between suitable and unsuitable areas, taken in full from the text approved by the executive of Viale Trento, is explicit and preordained with respect to each individual regulatory provision, the articulation of the provision is, instead, the litmus test of passages that appear contradictory and obscure to most.
Chapter "Exceptions"
Among all of them, there is certainly Article 3 of the Bill: the one reserved for the thorny and ambiguous chapter of "derogations". In the regional legislative provision, the subject, recipient or requester of the derogation, suddenly changes in each paragraph. It starts with "the Municipalities", but, along the twelve legislative "paragraphs", with a somersault, we arrive at the "change" of the nominal and substantial definition of the requester of the derogation, transforming it, as if nothing had happened, into the broader provision of "subjects". The provision of paragraph one of Article three is a jumble of contradictions. The full assumption of the law states: "The Municipalities may propose a request aimed at the construction of a plant for the production of energy from renewable sources within an area identified as unsuitable pursuant to this law even if they imply changes in the urban planning instruments". The first question is a consequent one: are the Municipalities the ones who present a request for a derogation to build a public wind or photovoltaic plant, or are they considered only "push-buttons" of private and multinational companies that, through the local authorities, request the derogation from the Region?
"The subjects" emerge
That the answer is obvious is clear from paragraph five of the same article where it is stated: «The subjects who submit an application for the construction of plants from renewable energy sources, including storage plants, must submit, before the issuance of the authorization provision, a surety bond to guarantee the correct execution of the intervention of the plant itself». In the blink of an eye, therefore, the Municipalities are replaced by "subjects" who must submit sureties. In short, a legislative "trap" that aims to pass speculation through a municipal viaticum, to be sanctioned, however, through the following clause: «The application referred to in paragraph 1 is submitted to the Department of Local Authorities, Finance and Urban Planning. The Regional Council deliberates on the application, on the basis of the criteria identified pursuant to paragraph 3». In practice, the Municipalities would become, according to the text approved by the Regional Council, "push-carts" for the request for exemption, but Viale Trento would still be the one to decide.
Sand Castle
Here too, the proposed regional regulation is surreal when it comes to providing that the "exemption" is given even "even if they imply changes to urban planning tools". That the regulatory framework proposed to the Regional Council risks turning into a modest sand castle can be deduced from the following passage: "The request (the exemption, ed.) must be accompanied, in addition to a feasibility study that identifies and evaluates the design alternatives or by the feasibility document of the design alternatives, if more detailed designs are not available, by a General Report, which justifies the exemption from the ban on installation in unsuitable areas in light of the objectives of energy transition, promotion of renewable sources and containment of energy costs".
“Shield” ban
In short, a "ban" that can be overcome with a mere "General Report", rather than a "ban", therefore, it is a modest smokescreen, which can be eliminated without too many frills. That the approach of the measure is totally pro-Draghian is evident from the persistent reference to "the objectives of energy transition, promotion of renewable sources and containment of energy costs". A mantra that persistently recalls the objectives of the Draghi Decree and its functional "branch" launched last June with the Fratin Decree on suitable areas, thanks to the endorsement and formal agreement of the President of the Region, assigning to Sardinia a minimum quota of 6,200 megawatts of renewable energy, more than triple what is necessary and due. Not to mention the madness of the 54,000 megawatts already requested from Terna for the electrical connection, enough energy for over fifty million inhabitants.
To be or not to be
In the text of the Bill, however, one can also find "pearls" that would make the Draghi Decree itself envious. In paragraph seven of Article 1, a provision appears that allows one to understand the degree of confusion that reigns supreme in the system designed to define "suitable" and "unsuitable" areas: "If a plant project falls on a site included in both the suitable areas referred to in Annex F and the unsuitable areas referred to in Annexes A, B, C, D and E, the criterion of unsuitability prevails". Regardless of the declared preeminence reserved for the criterion of "unsuitability", it seems at least "whimsical" to affirm that the same area can be both "suitable" and "unsuitable" at the same time. A passage that will certainly not leave indifferent the Judges called upon to decide on any disputes on the prevalence or otherwise of the suitability of that area.
Bluff on offshore
On a propaganda level, paragraph 9 of Article 1 is no less important, where it is stated that "areas not suitable for the construction of off-shore plants are those falling within territorial waters". It is a pity that all the projects presented are one meter outside of territorial waters, or twelve miles. A provision that gives the green light to the devastation of the Sardinian sea, considering that the following provision states that "areas suitable for the construction of works to connect offshore plants to land are exclusively port areas, industrial areas, or degraded areas not subject to redevelopment plans". In practice, a rule that fully accepts and makes possible the hypotheses of landing on Sardinian land of the lords of the sea wind. Here too, another imaginative definition of "degraded areas" is proposed, without any reference to delimitations and prior identification of criteria. The landing of the "leash cable" of the Tyrrhenian Link, which should land at Terra Mala on the Quartu coast, is completely ignored. In this case, if the same provision as for the offshore cable landing were valid, that area should be coded as "degraded", just to make the gentlemen at Terna happy.
Old money
Finally, there is the chapter on resources, those intended for Energy Communities. It has been touted as the real revolution to focus on for a painless ecological transition. In reality, not only are there no concrete provisions to implement, regulate and promote them, but the resources referred to in the text of the Bill belong more to a "recycling" of resources already allocated than to new allocations. If Article 2 of the proposal of the Council pompously announces a promotion of energy communities, upon checking the origin of the financial resources, one realizes that they are all already foreseen in past years. Starting from the 50 million foreseen for 2025 but "already authorized for the same purposes" with the law of February 21, 2023. In other words, no new resources under the sun and wind of Sardinia. Last note: Law 5 of July 3, 2024, the useless and infamous moratorium, based on paragraph 11 of Article 3 of the proposal of the Council, is repealed. Swept away timidly, without honors. It is already time for “next one”.
