Citizens movement appeals to President to repeal laws that hand land over to energy interests

At a point where citizens everywhere, often backed by their municipalities, are rising up against the government’s focus on plastering the countryside with solar panels and wind turbines, the Terra de Miranda Cultural Movement has called on Portugal’s president, the country’s Ombudsman and parliament to push for the repeal of two laws which it considers to be abusive because they “hand over land to energy interests”.

In a statement sent to Lusa news agency, the movement states that the first law, dating from 2022, allows the installation of wind farms and solar power stations to be authorised in just 10 days – even when environmental, historical, cultural and landscape values are at stake.

“All that is required is for public authorities not to respond within this unrealistic timeframe,” the civic movement explains.

The second law, dating from 2024, extends this regime until the end of 2026.

“These laws, which constitute a privilege granted by the State to a business lobby, are unacceptable in a state governed by the rule of law; they undermine the public interest, democratic common sense and the Constitution itself,” says the movement best known for fighting for IMI (rates) to be paid on the sale of six hydroelectric dams, so that municipalities get some benefits from the ‘deal’.

At issue this time is Article 3 of Decree-Law No. 30-A/2022 of 18 April and Decree-Law No. 116/2024 of December 30.

The movement considers it “unacceptable that land where owners are subject to severe restrictions imposed by the State can now be occupied by energy projects capable of destroying the ecological balance, the landscape and agriculture in the Terra de Miranda region”.

This position follows the presentation by Engie on May 7 in the border village of São Martinho de Angueira regarding the hybridisation of the Picote hydroelectric power station and a wind farm, which the movement criticises.

This wind farm is expected to have a capacity of approximately 157.5 megawatts, with 105 hectares of unfenced area earmarked for the wind turbines, cable trenches and access roads.

Another of the projects in question involves the integration of photovoltaic systems into three power stations in Trás-os-Montes, with a capacity of around 354 megawatts-peak (MWp).

“There can be no good faith in this process. There is no good faith when negotiating with landowners without providing them with information on the projects’ impacts. There is no good faith on the part of the State, which has passed laws to favour economic interests, nor on the part of the local authorities which, through their silence or omission, have left the public unprotected. The deception is compounded when these companies misuse the facilities of parish councils to present private business ventures, thereby misleading citizens”, says the movement, stressing parish councils exist (or certainly should exist) to defend residents, not to legitimise corporate operations.

Insisting that it is not against the energy transition per se, the movement emphasises that it is “against a transition hijacked by major economic interests, imposed on people through administrative silence, with private profits and public costs”.

“Clean energy cannot justify dirty deals, or the trampling of local democracy, transparency and the dignity of the people. We are against the flagrant inequality between the State’s complicity with energy companies and the contempt it shows for the local residents it is supposed to represent.

“The land of Miranda is neither empty nor expendable. It is land that is inhabited, worked, inherited and defended by those who live there,” the civic movement emphasises.

They are words being echoed in editorials, opinion columns and social media posts up and down the country as the public participation process on the government’s ‘Green Map’ – hoping to secure a land-grab for renewable energy projects of unprecedented proportions – plays out.

Source material: LUSA