The clash is unprecedented, as if the energy lobbies had suddenly abandoned the traditional partition aplomb on the heads of the Sardinians and Sardinia. On the one hand, the gentlemen of the wind, sponsored far and wide by Enel and Terna, the state branch of electricity transmission and on the other, Snam, the gas-fired soul of the state. Since the Draghi government got its hands on the island's energy, the war has become fratricidal. The race is not, of course, to address the significant structural and infrastructural deficits of Sardinia's energy system, but, if anything, to reduce the island increasingly to Italy's electricity colony. A plan studied at the table, as if the Sardinian division were a question to be decided in the palaces of Rome and in the gilded headquarters of the national and international energy lobbies.
Happy with Dragons
In this context, the government of the banker of Italy had tried to charm the island with a mini "sop" of gas for a region that has always been cut off from the methane networks. The inclusion in the energy decree of two regasifiers in the north and south of the island was, however, clearly only a cheap "sop", with the sole aim of silencing the Sardinians with some tank wagons and a few barges in exchange for silence for the real plan, that of flooding Sardinia with wind turbines on land and at sea to meet the "renewable" needs of much of Italy. The reasoning had been more or less this: we give the Region some gas with floats in the sea and, then, we trim thousands of blades and endless expanses of photovoltaic panels. Every worst prediction has been surpassed by reality. Even those who were counted among the conspiracy theorists of renewable energy were quickly displaced by the daily progress of an infinite number of projects, as if the government's plan had turned into a real attack on the peaks and the coasts. of the Island.
Sardinia on a leash
The strategy was all too clear: cancel any energy autonomy of the island, closing, without alternative, the thermoelectric plants of Portovesme and Porto Torres, to force the Sardinians, with the excuse of the Green Region, to accept the energy dependence on a power cable. electricity connection between Sardinia, Sicily and Campania. In reality, that cable-leash, in addition to putting the island in check, has the main and fundamental objective of "robbing" from Sardinia all the wind and solar energy necessary to satisfy much of the Italian renewable production envisaged in the plans signed in Brussels by the government From Rome. It is no coincidence that up to now, in the mountains, plains and coasts of the island, “renewable” projects have been presented that could satisfy the electricity needs of almost twenty million inhabitants compared to one and a half million Sardinians. All energy that would be snatched from the Sardinians to be fed into the Italian electricity circuit. The plan of Draghi and Cingolani, however, is colliding day after day with a confused energy state that is bringing out contradictions and real abuses of power, especially that consumed against the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, until proven otherwise holder of a special statute with primary constitutional competence in matters of "Landscape" and "Government of the territory" and competitor on the energy match. Until now, the lobbies had faced each other only in the dark rooms of Rome without showing the unprecedented clash on energy choices for Sardinia. In the Draghi decree it was written that the floating regasifiers could also be used for thermoelectric production, revealing that those terminals to be placed in the ports would have favored the conversion of the coal plants of Portovesme and Fiumesanto. In an ambiguous and equivocal modus operandi, the possibility was only hinted at, without anything certain having been foreseen. However, Snam had not lost heart.
Master of steam
Although the decree had not yet been approved, she rushed to buy a ship to be transformed into a floating regasifier for the modest sum of 269 million euros. At least a hasty investment given that the cost-benefit analysis was far from close to reality. To give the blow to the regasification project was Enel which in Sardinia acts as the master of steam: it decides everything, on the heads of institutions and citizens, imposes the choices and does not even grant the right to reply. The document that we are publishing has remained armored for a few days in the most "conspiratorial" offices of the state and then came into our hands. Enel not only literally slaps Snam, but once again assumes, in black and white, the position of the father-master of the energy fortunes of Sardinia. Communication is as concise as it is "unscrupulous". The tone is that of those who not only decided to sink the Snam regasification plant project, but above all that of those who communicate, “apertis verbis”, to the Region that those who establish the energy policy in Sardinia are Enel and not others.
The one-two of Enel
There are two very heavy statements contained in the letter reserved for the Minister of Ecological Transition. The first: according to Enel, Snam stated that the cost-benefit analysis of the regasification plant would also include the use of gas for the conversion of the Enel plant in Portovesme. It is false - claims Enel. The written words are electric whips: "It should also be noted that no applications for authorization have been submitted for the plant's production structures other than coal-fired and that therefore the date of December 31, 2025 is to be considered today as the term of operation of the Enel plant “Grazia Deledda” ». In practice, for Enel, helmets the world, on 31 December 2025 the Portovesme plant closes. " Grazia Deledda "and synergies were evaluated with the operation of the plant itself to reduce the environmental impact of waste water from the regasification plant". The blow is very hard: "Enel Produzione SpA has not presented projects for the conversion of the Sulcis coal plant into a gas plant, it is believed that the considerations set out in the additions to the" Portovesme Terminal and related works "project by the SNAM Rete Gas SpA with regard to the synergies that can be implemented with the operation of the Enel plant in Sulcis are not consistent with either the end of life of the same - envisaged by the AIA Decree at 12/31/2025 - or with the area's reconversion projects ". It is not known which conversion projects Enel refers to, certainly they are far-fetched given that there is no conversion plan that provides for the cessation of energy production.
The pseudo green coup
It is probable that Enel refers to its own plans, to the point of considering them acquired and accepted by everyone only because they were decided by the father-master of electric steam. In this context, moreover, he makes no secret of it in the same communication to the Ministry. In practice, Enel will not use Snam's gas also "in consideration of the Sardinia Isola Verde project promoted by the Enel Group, based on sustainability and the electrification of the island by exploiting only renewable technologies". As if to say, we have already decided for the Sardinians, for the Region and also for the lords of the wind. A position that risks ending up straight on the desk of the Antitrust Authority, considering that in that communication the monopoly prevalence of Enel on the market clearly emerges, to the point of imposing choices in contrast with the same positions expressed by the Region, see appeal to the TAR against the Draghi decree. For Sardinia, this is a position that ends up crushing the energy market in favor of a company that is exercising its monopoly position to the point of overriding the energy choices of a region.
The gas cut that is not there
We would ask ourselves: but can thermoelectric production in Sardinia be in the hands of Enel alone, which it makes and undoes at will? The game is very tough and this position taken by the electricity company risks putting the island even more in check by the energy lobbies, starting with the wind power ones. In the meantime, the “Snam Rete Gas and Terna consultation on Sardinia energy demand scenarios and virtual pipeline configuration” must be concluded by 2 September, as indicated by the Energy Authority. Obviously all consultations to be carried out in the middle of August, just to avoid serial jammers. The two companies, however, on their own account, not caring about the consultations, have already decided to cut gas consumption envisaged for Sardinia. We would go from one and a half billion assumed up to now in all Snam plans to an overall demand for gas reduced to 977 million cubic meters / year by 2030 and 1029 / year by 2040. In practice, Sardinian citizens for gas, if ever the regasification plant was built, little and nothing will arrive. For the Island of sun and wind, energy autonomy is increasingly a mirage. In Rome, Enel, the lobby and the government have already decided: Sardinia will be the energy colony of Italy.
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