Braving the political turmoil of pension reform, Parliament definitively adopted on Tuesday, February 7, by a final vote of the Senate, the renewable energy acceleration bill carried by Agnès Pannier-Runacher which provides in particular for the development of offshore wind and solar power.
In the midst of the energy crisis and under the pressure of the climate emergency, this text aims to make France catch up on its great delay in this area.
The vote was acquired by 300 votes "for" and 13 votes "against" (10 senators Les Républicains - including the president of the group Bruno Retailleau - and three centrists).
The bill intends to meet the objective set by President Emmanuel Macron for 2050 to multiply by ten the production capacity of solar energy to exceed 100 GW and to deploy 50 wind farms at sea to reach 40 GW.
Read alsoRenewable energies: an “uncertain” vote in the National Assembly
"
The challenge of this text is to remove all the locks that delay the deployment of projects, neither more nor less
", declared the Minister for Energy Transition, who fought hard to secure support in the oppositions on the right such as to the left.
With sometimes surprising results: the text which was the subject of a compromise between deputies and senators was voted by the vast majority of LR senators, while the deputies of the same party had voted against.
First part of a triptych on energy
In both chambers, as in the joint joint committee, the fiercest negotiations focused in particular on the planning of areas for accelerating the deployment of renewable energies, with the approval of the municipalities, and on possible exclusion zones.
Local elected officials “
propose and have the last word on zoning
”, underlined Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
And exclusion zones will only be possible for territories that validate acceleration zones, she recalled.
But ecologist Ronan Dantec says he fears a "
blocking and slowing
" device.
His group, like the predominantly communist CRCE group, abstained.
This text is only the first part of a triptych on energy.
In the spring, the executive intends to defend in the National Assembly the bill promoting the construction of new nuclear reactors, passed easily at first reading in the Senate on January 24.
Then the Parliament will decide, at best this summer, on the energy future of France, with the multiannual programming law, fixing the share of each energy, including nuclear.
