Four days before the opening of COP27 on climate change in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt, a bill to accelerate the construction of new nuclear reactors is presented on Wednesday, November 2 in the Council of Ministers, while the debates on the bill to accelerate the development of renewable energy begin in the afternoon in the Senate. With an absolute majority in the Assembly, the two texts could have become one, recognizes an adviser to power.
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In the midst of an energy crisis, and with a relative majority, the government is forced to make agreements. To quickly build new reactors, it is easier to agree with the right, with the consent of the National Rally, but for more wind turbines, it is to the left that we must turn. Hence the two separate texts.
If the text on nuclear power is to be debated in the Assembly at the beginning of next year, the battle over renewable energies begins well this Wednesday, November 2 in the Senate. And as anticipated by a senior minister, it’s coming”very complicated“. What the government wants with this law is to simplify and speed up the instruction procedures. It takes five years today on average to build a solar farm, ten years for an offshore wind farm. The text seeks therefore to simplify the procedures, particularly with regard to biodiversity and to limit the effects of legal recourse. And it is also necessary to find space mainly for solar panels. The text will thus authorize their construction on the edges of motorways, landfills or degraded land on the coast.
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However, already, it does not turn completely round. In committee, exactly what the government feared happened: the senators – on the right – adopted two amendments from the Republicans which smash its ambitions: no offshore wind turbine within 40 km of the coast and mayors’ right of veto on the location of onshore wind turbines. Cash summary by a figure from the Luxembourg Palace: “At sea, that amounts to saying that we are going to install wind turbines at the English and on land, if the amendment passes, I challenge you to launch a project anywhere”. However, according to the wind energy union which is lobbying, the completed files represent the equivalent of a nuclear reactor and those which could be completed within two years have the energy of two reactors. “It’s essential if we want to have more kWh and undo the tension on supply and lower prices”underlines the general delegate of France Energie Éolienne, Michel Gioria, according to whom, “over the period 2022-2025, it is almost the one and only solution”.
“There is the text and the context”, deplores a centrist. And the program is busy: the senatorial elections take place in a year, the congress of mayors takes place in three weeks and the first round for the presidency of LR in a month. Candidate, the boss of LR in the Senate, Bruno Retailleau, is already accused of “doing petty politics” on the back of the climate.
In the Assembly, we will therefore have to try to retricoter: the text arrives there on December 5, between the two rounds of the election among the Republicans. “In any case, Retailleau will have enough weight to convince right-wing deputies to vote like the Senate”, worries a support of the president. The government is seeking support from socialists and environmentalists but doubts that will be enough. “It seems possible to me to land between people of good will”, tries to convince a minister on the front line. But he admits: “Hard to say where”. A macronist laughs yellow: the risk is to end up with a “gloubi-boulga which will accelerate slowly”.
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The law on renewable energies risks being the first victim of the new political deal, agrees a seasoned observer of parliamentary life, especially since the government does not want to use the only 49.3 that will remain after the Budget. “We rather keep it for the pension reform”, confirms a pillar of the majority. An opponent sneers: “Like in video games, they only have one life left, they have to display their priorities.” However, the issues of energy independence and ecological transition are crucial and France is already lagging far behind in the development of solar and wind power.