Le Figaro Bordeaux
Oil from the Arcachon basin is in the spotlight.
For several months, voices have been heard, mainly on the left and among environmentalists, to prevent the opening of eight new oil wells in La Teste-de-Buch, in the Arcachon basin.
A mobilization is also planned in Bordeaux this Sunday at 2 p.m.
During questions to the government this Tuesday in the National Assembly, Gironde deputy Loïc Prud'homme (La France Insoumise) strongly criticized the government's position on this subject.
“You declared here a week ago with confidence that you wanted to rhyme climate and growth, your latest discovery, you called it
French-style ecology ,
”
quipped the MP to Gabriel Attal, adding:
“c “It is your friend the Vermilion tanker who will inaugurate this new concept”
.
The Gironde elected official estimated that
“this project is the perfect definition of the word incoherence”
, recalling that in 2022, Élisabeth Borne declared
“want to make France the first major industrial nation to emancipate itself from fossil fuels”
.
According to IPCC experts, new fossil fuel extraction projects are in fact incompatible with warming of less than 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era.
Read alsoEcological transition: the president of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region accuses Gabriel Attal of going in the wrong direction
“A blue white red disaster”
Loïc Prud'homme estimated that the government is watching,
"passively"
,
"the possible opening"
of these eight oil wells within the forest of La Teste-de-Buch, which
"is still healing the wounds of the devastating fires of the “summer 2022”
, before wondering:
“So this is French ecology?
Let's pollute yes, but let's pollute French people, let's destroy biodiversity, but let's destroy French people.
You will thus have the cockardian pride of having exceeded the last planetary limits with a blue, white and red disaster.
The parliamentarian therefore asked the government to
“give priority to environmental protection and the fight against climate change”
, and not
“financial interests”
.
Already questioned in the Senate by the ecologist Yannick Jadot on November 29, Christophe Béchu responded by repeating the arguments of the presidential camp, but this time sprinkling them with more pugnacity.
The Minister of Ecological Transition recalled that it was at the start of Emmanuel Macron's first mandate that the National Assembly
“decided for the first time to ban new oil drilling and to say that in 2040 in France it there would be no more hydrocarbon drilling
.
This law provides for a gradual exit from fossil fuels, but does not prevent new wells from being drilled like those that Vermilion wishes to create in Gironde.
Read alsoVoices are raised against the 20-year extension of a mining concession in the Gironde estuary
“Go and come up with new ideas”
“At no time has the left that you claim to have used the mandates it had had to make this type of decision
,” insisted the minister, recalling that the law
“sets a framework, that of 2040
,” but that in the case of the Arcachon basin, the procedure is continuing.
After a public inquiry and a favorable opinion from the investigating commissioner, the decision is in the hands of the prefect of Gironde, Étienne Guyot.
State services specified to Le
Figaro
on January 15 that this would be taken after the meeting of the departmental council for the environment and health and technological risks (CODERST), scheduled for the first half of 2024.
As for the accusation of inconsistency in government policy, Christophe Béchu counter-attacked in the Assembly by targeting the LFI's position on the atom, the Insoumis having voted against the nuclear relaunch project, just like the environmentalists .
The Minister of Ecological Transition estimated that it is with
“more renewables and nuclear power that we will be able to move away from fossil fuels”
.
“Support the French ecological transition, take responsibility for the relaunch of nuclear power, make sure to support us on renewable energies
,” asserted Christophe Béchu.
“Get out of your comfort and your postures, because in this matter, it will be time for you to come up with new ideas than those you are trying to recycle to us.”