Automatically translated from Basque, translation may contain errors. More information here. Elhuyarren itzultzaile automatikoaren logoa

Open letter to Mikel Otero

As spokesperson and secretary for the Ecological Transition of EH Bildu, Mikel Otero, through this open letter we want to make some contributions and questions to the energy and ecological transition approach and strategy that is taking place in this country.

In the proposal presented to respond to the climate, energy and eco-social crisis we are experiencing, two fundamental pillars are raised: one, the reduction of energy consumption. And two: renewable energy supplies.

As for the first point, it is not specified in what the reduction in energy consumption is. It is said that the energy consumed must be halved. It will have to be clarified that this lower consumption should not be only of electricity expenditure, which is not the energy we most use quantitatively today. Fossil fuels account for the largest energy expenditure we use (80%). And not all that 80 percent fossil energy is electrifiable. In this approach, therefore, there should be a strategy that should be geared towards growth. If we have to consume half, the lack of approach that also reduces the use of fossil fuels is obvious.

If we consume half, the lack of approach that also reduces the use of fossil fuels is evident

The search for renewable energy cannot be done at any price and anything. Nor of the oligopolies we have dominated so far. They are looking for more ambitious, expensive and laborious projects. Because you multiply the yields you get by building large works. It is a policy based on cement and large infrastructures. With the TAV, we have not yet learned what it should have brought out, 2,000 trucks a day on our roads.

There is also talk of "democratization of renewables", of "competing for control over these energies". Do we do it only with the projects we create from now on? What about, for example, the wind structures currently operating throughout the Basque territory? Will we also compete for their control? "Everything was sold," he says. But it was a robbery! The 44 wind farms that were installed in Navarra and the CAPV in the previous two decades were projected with public money. Now all these infrastructures are in the hands of Acciona and Iberdrola. These energy multinationals, in the midst of the energy crisis, are the same ones that are not ashamed of publishing their annual profits. Meanwhile, we continue to pay electricity, gas and gas oil on inflated bills, to the sound of music by Galán, Felipe, José María, Josu Jon, etc. Can energy and electricity be democratized in a country where even democracy cannot be democratized? Among those authorities that maintain the 78 regime?

The interest (and decision) of the people should take precedence over corporate interests

In Araba and Gipuzkoa "projects such as Statkraft will be needed", it is proposed. Who puts the conditions here and at what price? What kind of machines, how and where to put them, do they choose? Or will they first be required to use degraded industrial areas, for example? It seems that the execution of these works in these industrial areas will not be so profitable for them. Will you need less ground and cement movements? Here too, the interest (and decision) of the people should be put before corporate interests, whatever their origin. This Norwegian company is one of the largest energy companies in Europe, in company and part of the large oligopolies. Its work is promoted and financed by the Norwegian bank NorgesBank. This bank is Iberdrola’s third shareholder behind Qatar Investment and Blackrock.

If we are required to take responsibility for this transition, the first thing we need to do is protect the environment that we have so badly eroded, preserve the connections between smaller natural spaces and promote sustainable local projects that make us more self-sufficient. We cannot mortgage more land and people with large infrastructures.

C.P. Naroa De Armentia Luzuriaga (Vitoria-Gasteiz) and Mirari Aldalur Gabilondo (Azkoitia)

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