The Council of States is having a funny time, to say the least. Concerned about protecting the climate, he explains, the bourgeois clan wishes to restrict the rights of environmental associations. The fact is that, currently, 16 dam construction or raising projects are underway. But various local and landscape defense associations have already blocked three with appeals.
This worries Beat Rieder (C/VS), chairman of the Energy Commission: “The Grimsel, Trift and Gornerli projects must be implemented as quickly as possible. If they are delayed by environmental protection associations, we will not be able to achieve the energy transition on schedule,” he said in the “NZZ”. In addition, the elected official mentions a risk of energy shortage. A limitation of associations’ right of appeal was therefore put on the agenda of Parliament, by Beat Rieder and the leader of the PLR, Thierry Burkart. The Council of States will have to decide on Tuesday, through a so-called “acceleration” decree.
Considering that it had been expressly guaranteed that ordinary procedures would be respected, when the Swiss largely accepted the electricity law, associations, such as WWF or Greenpeace, cried treason. And Pro Natura points out that, between 2010 and 2020, out of around 750 hydraulic, wind or biomass projects carried out, only 62 were the subject of an appeal.
In Bern, many elected officials, especially on the left, do not approve of this request for acceleration either and believe that, if accepted, the decision will be submitted to a referendum. “The objective must therefore be a compromise so as not to compromise the acceptance of the project,” shares Schaffhausen socialist Simon Stocker. And Federal Councilor Abert Rösti recalled that, during the last popular vote on the right of appeal of associations, two thirds of voters spoke out against a limitation.
