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“You can’t do territorial energy policy as if you were attending a football match: it’s not a question of fans, but of strategic vision. It is therefore It is essential to overcome polarizations and promote the circular economy; the territories have, in fact, two inexhaustible urban mines at their disposal: the waste they produce and the knowledge to valorise them through new technologies”. Thus the centre-left mayoral candidate Andrea Virgilio replies to Alessandro Portesani, candidate for mayor of the centre-right, and Michel Marchi, mayor of Gerre de’ Caprioli’s PD, on the case of the biomethane plant.
“An example,” claims Virgil, “is the biomethane, a tool that generates clean energysupported by many environmentalist groups, so much so that organizations such as Legambiente place it at the center of the development of the energy transition and a new campaign for correct environmental information, with the aim of counter fake news and alarmism of various types. Through the use of a biomethane plant, a reduction of 9 thousand tons of CO2 per year would be achieved compared to the production of the same energy with fossil (non-renewable) sources. Local democracy must start from here: from widespread awareness.
The Lombardy Region, for example, under the centre-right leadership, considers these opportunities as an integral part of the Lombardy entrepreneurial and research ecosystem. The agricultural categories, for their part, recognize its importance, especially in an area like ours, which needs to reconcile development and sustainability.
The conservatism of some sectors of the local center-right in the face of such an ambitious challenge is, therefore, just electoral hypocrisyamong other things, badly ridden by a candidate who cunningly opts for a rearguard battleinstead of responding to the many requests for productive modernity for better environmental quality, such as, for example, those of a local entrepreneur, who ask for a greater boost to agroenergy, a strengthening of the link with the exhibition sector and greater attention from politics” .
“As for that sector and its vocation“, continues Virgil, “Circular economy plants already exist in the area around San Rocco: the waste-to-energy plant, the ecological platform, the purification plant, to which a biomass plant was added a few years ago, among other things precisely wanted by the centre-right, which at the time had not batted an eyelid, contrary to what is doing now in the election campaign. Now it is a question of giving environmental order to that sector and meeting the needs of the urban agglomerations present, and this is precisely what we want to do, with the possible introduction of biomethane, insisting on A2A to invest in the area.
The state of the art: A2A purchased an area from a private entity and initiated more stringent procedures, such as the Environmental Impact Assessment, also requested by the plant’s opponents. The public bodies then proposed changes, made additions, and the Municipality raised the crucial issues such as roads, plantings, vehicle flows, which will now need to be addressed. In addition to this, there is a need to create sewer systems in the area of neighboring urban agglomerations. Here because it is essential that a new plant is accompanied by adequate investments for the entire sector. Only in this way can the environment and citizens be protected. And all this even knowing that possible variations to the project could extend the authorization process.
A territory does not welcome the energy challenge with superficial proposals: three easels, a rendering, the Po beach transformed into Milano Marittima, two cycle paths and three photovoltaic panels. And it is also curious to note that the protagonists of the conservative right did not bat an eyelid on these initiatives when the biomass plant sprang up like a mushroom in the mountains after the rain; indeed, at the time they had even proposed a ring road in the middle of the Morbasco park, demonstrating a hairy environmentalism that undermines the credibility of their own statements.
So, what should be the role of a county seat? Contrary to what Portesani claims, the capital is not a dog that keeps its ears down with the small neighboring municipalities. Its role, on the contrary, is to serve the entire territory and define a strategic line on the main issues, dialoguing and interacting with the entire province and in particular with the surrounding municipalities. It does it, it can do it, only if there is openness to dialogue and mutual respect.”
“On biomethane”, concludes Virgilio, “we were off to a good start: a resolution from the Municipality of Gerre expressed legitimate concerns, but showed openness to discussion and collaboration. A subsequent resolution then closed the doors and gratuitous accusations were made against the Municipality of Cremona. As a man of the institutions, committed to changing the conditions of our territory for the better, I remain convinced that respect is the fundamental premise of discussion and reasonable understanding”.
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