The Contentious Chamber of the National Court has declared itself incompetent in the appeal that the Government of La Rioja presented on May 3 against the resolution of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition that granted prior administrative authorization to the wind farm … Providentia and energy evacuation lines. Among them is the controversial Tauste Júndiz, which would cross the region from Alfaro to Briñas, with 250 supports up to 70 meters high with a transport capacity of 400 kilovolts.
The court, in an order to which this newspaper has had access, points out that it is competent to process appeals against ministers and secretaries of State when they rectify the dictates of other bodies with jurisdiction throughout the national territory. And La Rioja’s appeal would not meet these requirements since the resolution it seeks to annul was issued by the General Directorate of Energy Policy and Mines.
It is therefore a question of form rather than substance, but as the regional government recognises, it will mean a delay in the legal battle against the so-called Forestalia high-voltage motorway.
The National Court will now refer the appeal to the High Court of Justice of Madrid for a response to the Riojan request, although at the moment, the regional government has not been notified of the arrival of the matter to the TSJM.
On January 30, the Riojan Government argued before the Ministry against the installation on Aragonese soil of the Providentia wind farm, with a capacity limited to 28 MW of power, but connected to the large Tauste-Júndiz high-voltage highway for the evacuation of the energy: “The procedure was carried out with formal defects, such as a favorable environmental impact declaration without prior hearing to the interested parties, including the Government of La Rioja, and with a total lack of motivation,” the Executive Spokesperson then noted.
The Treasury Minister also alleged substantive reasons. He was referring to the serious landscape, human and cultural effects on the territory. After the period it had to rule on the Rioja allegations, the Ministry resolved the case negatively due to administrative silence, hence the Community took legal action.
The High Voltage Highway affects 29 Rioja municipalities directly, with an extraordinary visual and environmental impact on 557 hectares of crops, vineyards and irrigated lands included, critical damage to three assets of Rioja cultural interest (BIC), the Camino de Santiago, the wineries of Los Mártires or the medieval enclave of Serrarte in Briones, as well as serious effects on birdlife and numerous protected natural spaces.
The Forestalia highway, whose purpose is to transport energy produced in Aragon to the Basque Country, currently has a favorable environmental impact declaration, although conditional, among other things, on the approval of the affected territories (La Rioja, Navarra and Euskadi), who have positioned themselves against it.
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