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The Environment Minister, Marina Silva, said that the bill that flexes environmental licensing, approved in the National Congress in the early hours of Thursday (17), “disappoint” Brazil’s legislation.
‘Law has been severed,’ says Marina Silva about loosening environmental licensing. Photo: Reproduction/Vinicius Loures/Chamber of Deputies
Internally, the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) evaluates that he has no commitment to sanction the proposal and analyzes the possibility of vetoing at least excerpts from the text.
“The law is not being changed, as it is natural in democracy, to generate improvements that lead to environmental, economic and social gains. The law is being severed,” he told Folha de S.Paulo.
It was the minister’s first statement after approval. The session was emptied, since the president of the House, Hugo Motta (Republicans-PB), released parliamentarians for online vote and the discussion swept at dawn.
Throughout the proposal, the government dodged a clear position. In the previous vote, in the Senate, he released the bench, and much of the base was favorable to the proposal.
In this last vote, he advised against, but at a time when the text had little margin for changes – and none of the changes made by Marina was accepted by the deputies.
Understand
The environmental licensing project is supported by the ruralist bench and also members of the Lula government, such as the head of the Civil House, Rui Costa, as well as Carlos Fávaro (agriculture), Alexandre Silveira (Ports and Airports) and Renan Filho (Transportes).
Parliamentarians already foresee, however, that the subject should be one to stop in the Supreme Court (STF), since during its proceedings several parliamentarians pointed out possible unconstitutionalities.
The vote occurred on a day of defeats for Congress, with the government’s veto to increase the number of deputies and the partial resumption of Lula’s decree over the IOF in the STF.
The minister also said that the approval of the project at this time is even more serious, because it occurs four months of COP30, Climate Conference of the United Nations (UN) in Belém.
In the House, the deputies kept in the text all the points criticized by environmentalists: the LAE (Special Environmental License), a device revealed by Folha de S.Paulo and sponsored by the Senate President, Davi Alcolumbre (Brazil-AP Union).
This mechanism allows the executive, for political reasons, to choose projects classified as strategic, which undergo a simpler, faster, single -stage and one -year analysis, regardless of the potential environmental impact and the use of natural resources.
As Folha de S.Paulo showed, this last device can boost, for example, the exploitation of oil in the Foz do Amazonas Basin, an enterprise criticized by Marina, but defended by the senator and even by the federal government, including President Lula, as well as Minas Gerais Ministries and Energy and the Civil House.
It was also maintained in the text the LAC (license for adhesion and commitment), authorization granted without individual analysis, provided that the entrepreneur is committed to joining pre-established conditions. It goes for cases of small and medium size.
