The Municipality ready to increase the IMU on land intended for photovoltaic

The Municipality of Viterbo has decided to increase the IMU on agricultural land used for photovoltaics. This is the measure announced by Chiara Frontini in recent days from Milan on the occasion of the national green cities conference. “A necessary choice,” said the mayor.

«Talking about biodiversity in Viterbo and Tuscia cannot ignore talking about the agricultural issue – began Frontini -. Ours is a territory with a very high agricultural vocation, we are the 12th Italian province in terms of agricultural territory and the seventh in terms of share of added value produced by agriculture. And if we talk about the defense of agriculture and biodiversity we cannot fail to talk about the invasion of ground-based photovoltaics. If any of you have the pleasure of taking a walk around our areas, you will realize that one of the largest ground-mounted photovoltaic systems in the entire nation is currently under construction in the area between Tuscania and Tarquinia.

Tuscia hosts 70 percent of all photovoltaic systems in the Lazio region, as well as other large wind farms.”
Frontini explained to the audience that the debate on these issues in the province of Viterbo is very heated. «If we talk about biodiversity, all these plants cancel out the potential of using agricultural land for the purpose for which it is identified, the production of food. The theme between the very important challenge of energy sovereignty, and therefore the production of clean energy not from fossil coal, and at the same time the protection of the landscape and the vocation of the identity of the territories is a theme that in our specific area today is absolutely in disequilibrium”.

From here the mayor Frontini motivated the decision to intervene by increasing the IMU in the agricultural areas where plants for the production of renewable energy from ground-mounted photovoltaics will be built. «What do local communities do to defend themselves in addition to using all the legal tools to combat this phenomenon? We are trying to tighten taxation. Within our administration we are about to launch an instrument that tightens taxation, essentially the IMU on agricultural land that is used for photovoltaics. I believe that the topic will certainly be much debated and we should expect very strong resistance on this, but from our point of view it is a necessary choice.”

Still on the subject of renewables, in recent days the mayor has lashed out against the project of «a wind farm around Lake Bolsena with the construction of 16 blades two hundred meters high», announcing «the municipal administration’s support for the solicitation of a public inquiry advanced by the Friends of the Earth association”. The public inquiry is the procedure that is initiated to guarantee transparency and democracy in the processes that lead to the approval of certain measures. «We will fight with all our energy to defend the environment, against the proliferation of renewable energy plants, starting with wind power on Lake Bolsena, exactly as we are doing on the Monterazzano landfill», explained Frontini in a note.

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