The last sliding door for the Gioia Tauro regasification plant is in the Energy Decree. And just yesterday the Minister of the Environment, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, said that the provision should arrive in the Council of Ministers next week, “if we finish the discussions as I believe and know what to keep and what to expunge”. Until the last knots with the European Union are resolved, everything remains blocked, including the most awaited passage to Gioia Tauro and Calabria: in the draft of the decree which began to circulate in mid-October, it is envisaged that «strategic interventions of public utility, the works aimed at the construction and operation of on-shore liquefied natural gas regasification terminals, as well as the related infrastructures for which, on the date of entry into force of this provision, the authorization provision has been issued cannot be deferred and urgent” . This is exactly the case of Gioia, «whose project – recalls the President of the Region, Roberto Occhiuto – has all the valid authorizations, would be carried out with the resources of Iren and Sorgenia and would have a capacity of 16 billion cubic metres, more than the half of what we imported from Russia.”
From the regional Citadel there is strong pressure on the Meloni government to give the final green light to the regasification plant, to which among other things the plan for the cold plate is linked. The governor himself has explained it several times: «Since regasification requires a cold plate, which also serves to freeze products, Calabria could allocate a large district in the area overlooking the first port in Italy, Gioia Tauro. of the agro-industry to also freeze products from Sicily and Campania”. In fact, however, war, energy crisis and changes in government have been discussed for two years without getting anything out of the hole. And the blockade, by the Region, is considered inexplicable.
Read the complete article in the paper edition of Gazzetta del Sud – Reggio