If there weren't half a billion euros and the need – especially for Italy – to have continuously available energy sources, the TAP pipeline affair would be a perfect war of nerves. In part it is. Between governments, political formations, environmentalists, new and old ministers.
The Lega Cinquestelle government has said on several occasions that the work needs to be reviewed, if not completely abandoned. And the minister of the South, Barbara Lezzi, fought a tough battle in the area before taking up her ministerial post. Gas consumption, it was explained, is decreasing, why send the megapipe to the Apulian coast? What is it for? Naturally, the companies engaged in the construction of the gas pipeline, the energy-vulnerable countries, do not think so. All those who want to loosen their dependencies on Russia. But also those who invest. Europe believes it. It has re-studied the consumption of gas and other traditional sources, certifying the need for more gas from 2020. This is what Tap is for.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will decide autonomously whether to agree next week a loan of 1,2 billion in support of the project. The decision is expected on July 4, but advances suggest that everything will fall into place. A new injection of money and confidence, therefore, a few weeks after the 1,5 billion loan granted by the EIB. In the construction of the TAP is engaged with 4,5 billion euros a International consortium with the Italian Snam. The trust of the EU has so far been expressed with credit lines included in the Community program Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). This is no small matter in the scenario of investments on a continental scale. The war of nerves is, then, the symptom of different ways of seeing the development of Italy. Of the structures necessary to make it progress, with eyes and ears on public finances.
Renewables and energy efficiency are not in question. The battles against the gas pipeline in the Puglia Region have already torn relations in the centre-left government. The ratings of Lega and Cinquestelle are now in danger of destroying the work, or to delay its conclusion by four or five years. Perhaps, as the governor Emiliano says, studying a different landing place from the current one. The gas arriving from the Caspian Sea is strategic for the entire industrial world. Confindustria has asked not to abandon the large infrastructures left by previous governments. More explicitly not to compromise the patiently woven international efforts and collaborations. But then there is the SEN which, relaunches the PD in a parliamentary interpellation to the Minister of the Environment Sergio Costa, "envisages the construction of new infrastructures, in particular the TAP which will transport around 10 billion cubic meters of new gas from Azerbaijan as of 2020”. Was it time to point that out? Yes, and not just out of partisan spirit. Because the war of nerves manifests itself in the days when the World Gas Conference. A crucial appointment, where Italy's role will be evaluated. Who knows how.
