The Ayala Live Mountains platform has travelled Jesuri this morning. The participants have split into two columns. In Llodio they left the town square at 9:30. In Orozko, the march began half an hour later, from Zubiaur Square.

All the mountaineers have gathered at the top of Jesuri, where they have read the news of the last few weeks. In fact, on 29 May, the day after the municipal and foreign elections, the Basque Government initiated the procedures for the implementation of two new wind farms (Ferosca I and Ferosca II), which the platform considered a “law fraud”.

At the Jesuri summit, they announced the information they had gathered on these two projects: “The supposed wind power plant Ferosca I would be located on the grounds of Llodio and Ayala, occupying the peaks of the Pikubiarte Mountains, Pagolar, Mostatxa, Antsoleta and Pagonabarra. 6 wind turbines 200 meters high on publicly owned forests with a power of 27 MW. On the contrary, the wind power plant Ferosca II would be located behind Mount Jesuri (…) would like to install another 6 turbines of 200 meters height, of the same power and on public utility mountains”.

The Platform has once again pointed out that the authorization procedures initiated by the Department of Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment of the Basque Government “lack territorial legal support, lack a Sectoral Renewable Energy Plan and do not comply with the determinations of the urban planning of the municipalities affected”.

Members of the movement against wind farms have also pointed out that a similar situation occurred in 2007 when the Department of Industry handled numerous authorisations that failed to comply with urban and territorial legislation. The platform explained that the Basque Parliament urged the Basque Government to suspend the authorisations granted at that time and to “formulate a Sectoral Territorial Energy Plan”.

However, members of the movement have denounced that this request has not been complied with and the Basque Government is processing authorizations for the installation of wind and photovoltaic parks “without the approval of new plans”. This form of action does not correspond to a “good governance model”, according to the platform. “Environmental, social and economic conflicts are occurring with the rural population, through the installation of photovoltaic plates on farmland and wind turbines on mountain lines in low-population municipalities.” In this sense, they highlight the existence of “more sustainable or complementary measures to achieve energy trancision”, but not valued: “No prior social consensus has been sought, but a large number of innovative private initiative projects have been promoted, without real social participation and involvement and without providing the necessary transparency and information to the neighbours directly involved.”

Call to fight

In this regard, the platform has called for the fight against all these projects and to join them. In this regard, they announce that next Tuesday, 13 June the next meeting of the platform will be held at 18:30 hours on the last floor of the House of Culture of Orozko.

Photos: Ayala Live Mountains Platform