An economic security and an investment in the future. The battle of Sardinia for gas becomes less heated. Movements against pipelines will have to acknowledge that the state supports the new infrastructure. "We have marked a milestone on the journey that always brings us closer to a new phase that will see the construction of large infrastructures linked to methane".
The President of the Region Christian Solinas speaks thus after the green light from the Conference of Regions for inclusion in the Pniec, the Integrated National Plan for Energy and Climate, works that have been awaited for years. At the Ministry of Economic Development, the Conference of the Regions has given a positive opinion to the version of the Government Plan, as amended by the Regions. For the only Italian region without transport backbones and distribution networks, it is a political and industrial success that arrives, moreover, when works worth millions of euros have already been started on the island. The Cinquestelle opposed to the new infrastructures will have to respect the choice.
The final decision reached at the Mise states that "the most appropriate interventions for the transport of natural gas will be implemented to ensure Sardinian consumers the necessary level of safety, fairness and continuity of supplies". Practically green light for connections between coastal depots under construction and under authorization and regasification terminals operating in Italy. In short, Sardinia will benefit from liquid gas transported by ships by implementing the so-called reloading system. One of the concerns of opposing movements and associations is that of the prices charged by gas distribution companies.
The Ministry has established that in order to give Sardinian users prices in line with those of the rest of Italy, solutions will be adopted that make it possible to equalize system costs and correlate the price of European gas to that referred to by companies that sell energy . So no discrimination against Sardinians who will pay for energy like everyone else. The regulatory authority for energy, networks and the environment, Arera, which on 15 October had proposed separate tariffs for Sardinia, will have to review its decision.
The disadvantages that the Cinquestelle in the front row feared for the Sardinians seem to have been definitively overcome. Gas – as confirmed by the most recent analyzes – remains a central energy vector in the transition to renewables. For Sardinia penalized by unrealized projects, political disputes and most recently by the government's Pniec which punished the island and its economy, a necessary step. With the prospect of an even more effective intervention for the transport of LNG from coastal regasification terminals to the distribution basins, added Solinas. His determination to see new works built, also thanks to previous funding, reopens the chapter of those new infrastructures mentioned in the 2020 Budget. The embarrassment of those against it is overcome by reality.
