Our committee is "Against" the referendum and the invitation we address to Italians is "Not" to go and vote. For two reasons: because it is a misleading referendum and because it is harmful.
It is misleading, because the promoters want to make Italians believe that the referendum is used to say "No" to new drilling within 12 miles and this just a short distance from the Parliament's decision to approve a law expressly forbidding them. What is the point of making the country spend 400 million euros to say 'No' to something to which Parliament has already said 'N0'? No sense, indeed. It's a Deception.
The referendum is not a popular initiative referendum. No one has asked citizens what they think and no one has collected the 500 signatures needed. Those who have tried in the past have not succeeded. This referendum was promoted by 8 regions (and not among the most populous) which are concerned with only one thing: affirming the principle, completely wrong, that, in the matter of energy, it must be the regions and not the Parliament. If this were to be the case, only local and local interests would prevail and not national ones. For this we invite citizens to reject the invitation of the eight Regions and not to go and vote.
The Referendum is also harmful. The real objective of its promoters is not to prevent drilling, which would be prohibited in any case, but to block the platforms that already exist and which for years have been supplying, in complete safety and without harming anyone, part of the gas that the country needs.
It is said that these productions are marginal and that the game is not worth the candle. It is not true ! The Italian production of gas and oil (on land and at sea) covers respectively 11,8% and 10,3% of our needs. In Euros this means 4,5 billion savings per year on energy bills. It's really not that little. The off-shore platforms that should be closed supply between 0 and 60% of the national gas that we use at home or in production activities. Why should we give up this clean, safe energy that satisfies the country's basic needs? Why should we undermine an industrial sector that creates jobs and wealth and is rich in professionalism and technologies? There is no valid reason to do this. It would be an absurd waste that no nation lucky enough to have national energy resources, starting with the "very green" Norway, would dream of making. Why should Italy do it?
The extraction of methane gas does not damage tourism in any way. 50% of the gas comes from the platforms located in the upper Adriatic and none of the numerous seaside resorts, starting with the splendid Ravenna, has complained of damage. On the contrary, seaside tourism has grown as have the beaches to which the Ambiente league awards the green schooner.
It does not damage the environment, the platforms are fish restocking areas and it was a few days ago that the California University of Santa Barbara asked that the Eureka platform not be abandoned because it has become and is considered by them an important fish oasis. It can be said that it disfigures the landscape. The wind turbines that populate the Apulian hills are much more disfigured.
Above all, gas extraction is safe. ISPRA, the National Institute of Geophysics, that of geology and that of oceanography exercise constant and stringent control over it. There is the control of the port authorities, the local health authorities and the local health authorities as well as that of the Higher Institute of Health and the competent ministries. No accidents or dangers of any significance have ever been reported.
Finally, this activity costs taxpayers nothing but gives a lot to the country: 800 million in taxes, 400 in royalties and concessions, 300 in investments in research. It employs more than 10.000 people directly and contributes with the sector to employing more than 100 people. Why should we disperse this wealth all the more if it does no harm to anyone.
The referendum request is purely destructive. A new development is not created by destroying what the country has painstakingly done, from Enrico Mattei onwards.
This is why we say to the Italians don't go to vote, don't pull the sprint to who only wants to destroy.
