In Italy, a showdown around the installation of a gas terminal on the Mediterranean coast

Piombino is a pretty little town on the Mediterranean coast, a small marina, fishing port and also an industrial port: this is where a regasifier (which treats liquefied gas) is due to arrive in the coming days. He left Singapore last month, where he was bought for 330 million euros.

In Italy, there is already gas, but it goes through gas pipelines. 40% came from Russia, it’s only 10% now. There is still some coal too. With the “Golar Tundra”, this regasification terminal, five billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas can be regasified each year: this represents 6.5% of the country’s needs.

But in Piombino, local residents and politicians are opposed to this installation: dFor a year, they have been taking to the streets and will be there again on Saturday afternoon, and have multiplied their appeals to the courts. They believe that the terminal will pollute, that the project has gone too quickly and that security is not guaranteed.

The subject is energy and environmental, but also political

The mayor of Piombino is a member of Fratelli d’Italia (the party of Giorgia Meloni) and no longer wants to answer interviews precisely because of the “delicate context”. Not easy to oppose the will of his own party. Because Giorgia Meloni is convinced – like her predecessor Mario Draghi – of the primary interest of the regasifier: flexibility. The gas can come from the Emirates for example, but also from the United States, from everywhere in fact since it is transported by boat.

Environmental defense associations are playing their card: that of ecological transition. Legambiente, the League for the Environment, is alarmed to see the government rush headlong into fossil fuels. Because Giorgia Meloni’s desire is to make Italy a hub, a gas distribution platform for Europe. In which case Italy will remain dependent on gas and will not turn to renewable energies or energy savings, according to the Environment League for which this race for fossils will even impoverish the Italians.