What happened on Tuesday at the Congress of Deputies is not new, but it did not stop astonishing. The . The three parties, with a progressive look, settled in the “no” wielding demagogic arguments and showing, very clearly, that there was a lot of political tacticism after their decision.
Everything pointed, from the first moment, to the false idea of a reform customary of the oligopoly. Sliding this approach is meaningless, especially since its main valuers voted against their approval and, also, for their content. And with this package of measures and to create the figure of the self -consumption manager, to protect and give guarantees to citizens when claiming and fighting for their rights to distributors. Nothing that is accused of managing a government with which they maintain open litigation.
To say, on the other hand, as it was stated from the speaker’s gallery, that this legislative project does not stop none of those is, directly, a lie that reveals the lack of arguments of those who, from the left, insisted on knocking it down. And it is that with this decree there was a necessary impulse to the deployment of storage batteries, both stand alone [independientes] as hybridized with photovoltaic plants.
This is essential to give flexibility and robustness to the electrical system, but also to, in addition to minimizing the dependence of combined gas cycle, which set a much higher price in the electricity market. Saying “no” to storage, as Deputy Mikel Otero de EH Bildu said, does not harm the government, but thousands of Spaniards and small businesses that will remain exposed to an electric market dominated by price volatility.
But this is not the only measure that gave robustness to the system. The Government included a historical demand of the renewable sector: this technology may be paid for operating to control the voltage of the network, making the stability and safety of the system not in the hands of fossil plants that, as has been demonstrated,.
Other arguments were also used, by BNG-and subsequently at a press conference by the representative of the Aragonesist Chunta, Jorge Pueyo-who had no reason to be within the reforms that were faced with this Royal Decree-Law. We talk here about Nimby speech [no en mi patio trasero, en inglés] That in our country it is summarized in the slogan “renewable yes, but not so”.
It is clear that social acceptance has a lot of margin of improvement and that the government must incorporate governance mechanisms to involve all social and economic actors in the deployment of these technologies. But, in this debate, referring to this argument and wield that certain areas of Spain are not “sacrifice zones” to justify the rejection of the RD makes no sense.
Environmental protection is maintained
The RDL does not eliminate any element of environmental and territorial protection for the deployment of renewables. In fact, put solutions on the table that. In the case of wind, so that the space of old parks is used to install a more modern and efficient technology.
This implies having more energy capacity in the same space and, even, with less occupation of land, since with less “mills” more energy could be generated than is generated in the most outdated facilities. To do this, even so, the promoters must comply with the law and present an environmental impact declaration (day), that is, to analyze the repercussions of the new renewable center against the old one, without having to make one day from scratch, as if it were a new project.
for which the obligation to present a day does not disappear, as tried to argue. Only those batteries that are installed next to a photovoltaic park and that, in addition, its installation do not entail an occupation of land greater than that of the solar park to which it is added. It is important to understand that the impulse of hybridized storage with renewable plants allows the hours of operation, as well as surpluses, without having to install new plants and occupy more territory. That is, this point of the RDL would come from the landscape concerns of certain sectors.
Progressive deputies have said and, therefore, have supported not accelerating in the fight against climate change. They have opposed measures that, beyond the technical, benefit the whole of society; that will facilitate reindustrialization based on renewables; that will generate thousands of jobs and that will democratize the system thanks to the development of self -consumption. And they have done it without providing solid arguments, with the worn letter of “everything is oligopoly” and with the confusing premise of “renewables yes, but not so.” This refusal is a sibylin extension of denialism, which does not colonize only liberal and conservative spaces, but confuses progressive sectors.
We need to get denialism and speech from the name of leftist formations. It is crucial that progress does not say yes to everything, but for this it is necessary that ambitious proposals be launched that improve our transition. Maximalist policies and postures of all or nothing are a ballast in the current urgency, when each advance, however, is essential.
We are not worth reducing the debate to the nationalization of energy if we do not attend to technical debates. The third vice president and minister for the ecological transition, Sara Aagesen, said, at the end of the vote, that we can, like the PP, refused to meet with the government to discuss changes and proposals that improve the legislative text while they have incorporated crucial measures from EH Bildu, ERC or add. It is not understood that there are formations that reject the dialogue in a transcendental topic such as the energy transition.
It is clear that the RDL was not perfect – no has been or will be – but it was a good first step to move forward and continue working on new ambitious reforms that guarantee that Spain can leave behind, forever, its fossil dependence. Permanent rejection cannot be an electoral tactic, especially when, as a consequence, the conquest of rights and advances in the fight against climate change is left in the air.
