Twenty years without a day of work. The unpleasant fact is that everyone has always known that building a LNG terminal in Sicily, in Porto Empedocle, in the Valley of the Temples, a UNESCO heritage site, a few steps from the Scala dei Turchi, from Luigi Pirandello's house, would be difficult. Almost impossible. Yet he insists. What are we talking about?
He is at the helm of the Sicilian Region today Renato Schifani, former president of the Senate, convinced that the regasification terminal will only bring advantages to Sicily. In the last meeting with the CEO of Enel, Flavio Cattaneo, Schifani reassured him of the feasibility of the work. In September 2023, a regional decree was approved to extend the authorization with the completion of works on the gas terminal in 2028. The Meloni government therefore included the regasifier in the Energy decree of November. Twenty years have passed since the presentation of the first project, during which we witnessed the greatest celebrity of the most famous citizen of Porto Empedocle: Andrea Camilleri. The author of Montalabano was not enthusiastic about what he wanted to do. Eight thousand people opposed the project in a referendum and never let their guard down. In two decades, national and regional governments of various colors and orientations have passed and the work has become another symbol of Italian political and bureaucratic contortions. The cost, with all due respect to the state coffers, has increased from 500 million to 1,5 billion euroso.
Who came up with the idea of compromising such an admired site ? To challenge thousands of people proud of their history? It seems impossible but it's true, with last week's latest anti-infrastructure letter from the Sustainability Movement. It is the group that leads the opposition. “Being a regasifier here is a foolish thing. I would like to point out that our Movement is not one of those not in my garden. I am an entrepreneur, I understand certain reasons. But here the battle is fought for the landscape, for people's health, for safety,” he says Alessio Lattuca, president of the Sustainability Movement.
Regasifier in Porto Empedocle, is it worth doing?
To make the regasifier work, 14 km of pipes carrying the liquefied gas must be buried. Snam, in addition to Enel, has an interest in the construction of the terminal as an integral part of the Italian gas system with 8 billion cubic meters. Nobody had foreseen the foreseeable? "I defended my city with an appeal against the construction of the pipeline which would have crossed the area of the Valley of the Temples, Pirandello's birthplace and which would have changed the natural, cultural and tourist vocation of the area", he recalls, speaking with FIRST online, the former mayor of Agrigento, Marco Zambuto. The years have worsened the picture. “I intervened following the popular referendum. Over time, the construction of the LNG terminal became uneconomical until the outbreak of the war with Ukraine which changed international geopolitics", adds the former mayor. Certain conditions have changed, but the Minister of the Environment Gilberto Pichetto Fratin is an advocate of investing. “The regasifiers constitute strategic works for the supply of gas for the purposes of national energy security, without prejudice to the decarbonisation program of the national energy system,” he says. Pichetto who has the favor of his political side, but faces more than one inconvenience. Gas demand in 2023 decreased; the new Piombino regasification terminal operates at 40%; European bodies are dealing with the case of Porto Empedocle; the opposition in Sicily does not stop.
The latest letter from the Sustainability Movement is dated April 26th. The attack is always on environmental safety policies and "on the issues of the health of those who live in places carelessly chosen by the usual facilitators". The area affected is called Kaos and before the last extension granted by the Region the project had slowdowns and interruptions due to the negative outcome of the environmental impact assessments. In 2013 also for an investigation into alleged mafia infiltration which ended without evidence three years later.
The project is being examined by the European Commission
The MEP of the Democratic Party Pietro bartolo asked the European Commission to prevent "the devastation of one of the most beautiful areas of the world, a world heritage site". The construction of the plant should take place on the basis of an environmental impact assessment from 2008. But in May 2022 the Superintendence for cultural and environmental heritage of Agrigento defined the project as a threat to the Valley of the Temples, among the world heritage sites of Humanity. We have a choice before us "which also has the flavor of mockery, given that it takes place on the eve of Agrigento Italian Capital of Culture 2025”, explains Bartolo. The Italian government also in this case wants to show the face of sovereignism, but the European Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius and the head of unit of the Energy Commission Christof Lessenich they wrote to the Movement and shared concerns about the work.
“The ongoing ecological transition is now an inevitable path, which is independent of partisan politics,” Lattuca wrote on behalf of the Movement. The lawyers of the companies involved, meanwhile, are about to turn to the Lazio Regional Administrative Court to move the case forward. And could the Region have done something else instead of the extension? It should have and will have to verify whether the state of the environment has changed since the project was authorized. If new results have emerged in this regard. The decisions are made by over fifty control and planning bodies for the protection of health, safety and the environment, including ISPRA, the port authorities, the Higher Institute of Health, the fire brigade and the competent ministry. They must establish whether the project is feasible and therefore totally safe for people and the environment. And only in the event of a positive outcome, could the process of the Services Conference resume. Another passage with an uncertain and attackable outcome that will certainly not respect President Schifani's 2028 date. It now seems Sicily's destiny to discuss infrastructures that will never be built for decades.
