Gela and Porto Marghera, two symbolic places of a certain industrialization whose impacts on the environment have gone down in history, will change their face. When? Over the next few years, investing only in Marghera 470 million euros. Eni and Versalis are working to achieve sustainable goals, despite the doubts of the trade unions. The managing director of Versalis Adriano Alfani attended the Environment and Production Activities Commissions of the Chamber to explain the work programme. In the background the need not to miss the train of the ecological transition. His illustration also coincided with a new position taken by the trade unions, who have endless doubts about the plans to reconvert the old sites. Yet the CEO of Eni Claudio Descalzi, in the recent meeting with Draghi and Cingolani, confirmed all the group's options in the transition to green productions. Above all, Eni is also working to become the owner of new eco-sustainable technologies.
These are medium-long term assessments, while the request to speed up the steps in total transparency comes from the two industrial areas - Sicily and Veneto. Versalis, in particular, thinks about new transformation poles of the old chemistry. For Gela we think of the biojet, for Marghera a plastic recycling site, a logistics hub for the distribution of products and a maintenance center for the Italian sites. "Marghera is part of Eni's transformation strategy, which will take place with numerous initiatives," said Alfani, announcing the closure of the cracking and aromatics plants. There will be no consequences on employment, he assured, because "chemical transformation is an opportunity to manage all direct employment". The strategic motivation of the plan for the Venetian lagoon is summarized in a cut of 600 tons of CO2 per year «a concrete opportunity to give value to the site and increase the value of Eni». An undoubtedly high commitment which, however, must be evaluated with respect to the general energy balance which aims at renewables, but does not completely bury the old productions.
And the debate is open. The plans illustrated in Parliament by the Versalis representative were added to those of another manager: Giuseppe Ricci general manager of Energy evolution. The Ansa reports that to the deputies of the two Commissions, Ricci reminded that in Marghera the conversion plan of the old refinery started in 2014, which - it must be said - does not entirely convince the union organisations. In any case, the path of sustainability must go ahead, because only in this way are we expected to contribute to decarbonisation. We try not to miss even the opportunity of hydrogen, hypothesizing the construction of a production plant. Will they make it? By 2023, however, everything should be up and running, with a economic framework that has already absorbed 300 million euros. Workers remain cautious. In the days of the parliamentary hearing, the trade unions wrote that the "feared conversion of Porto Marghera is simply and dramatically a closure of plants and nothing more".
A sort of halt to ambitious plans that in one way or another are linked to the green conversion that is about to be brought to Brussels. The industrial decline of a historical area like Marghera it will certainly not be accepted by the thousands of employees, who are themselves aware of the excessive impacts on the climate and on health. We will have to discuss it further. What is perhaps still missing from the comparison between the words of the managers and the union documents is mutual trust. Not a detail. A clear point that guarantees that leap in quality, that is a good synthesis between industrial development and environmental protection. If the largest energy company in the country succeeds, everything will be gained. And we won't have a new ex Ilva.
