A few dozen employees of the Emile Huchet coal-fired power plant in Saint-Avold (Moselle) took action in front of the Moselle prefecture on Friday, to demand that the government honor Emmanuel Macron’s commitments on the conversion of the power plant to biomass by 2027.
“The message to send is: Stop turning your back on us, take us into consideration,” explainsAFP Thomas About, CFDT union representative for GazelEnergie at the Emile Huchet power plant. Around twenty employees as well as subcontractors deposited wood pellets, fuels used to replace coal to prepare for the conversion of the site to biomass, in front of the Moselle prefecture.
“The President of the Republic is committed to leading a reflection on our power plants, in particular the end of coal in 2027 then a conversion to biomass, do not sweep everything aside,” Mr. About again called. . “We have been abandoned by the government,” added David George, technical operations manager, who joined the plant in 1998.
For him, the site “is in danger, this is confirmed by Bercy”, with “political problems, while Emmanuel Macron’s promise should take precedence over any cognitive dissonance between different politicians. We have to go to 2027, we have to convert our tool.” “We have the fuel, we knew how to do it, we know how to do it, it’s a promise, let’s do it,” he insists. In total, with subcontractors, the closure of the plant, without conversion to biomass, would threaten 500 jobs “in an already damaged area” in Moselle-Est.
Emmanuel Macron announced in September that France would exit coal “by 2027”, by converting the country’s last two power stations, that of Saint-Avold and that of Cordemais (Loire-Atlantique) to renewable energy. Requested by theAFPthe office of the Minister of Industry Roland Lescure indicated that the exit from coal “was not an option, but “an imperative which would be effective in France by 2027” and that “the minister was currently working under the conditions of implementation of this commitment with all stakeholders.
