Question 7504 — municipalities

Summary

Mr. Pascal Markowsky alerts the Minister of Ecological Transition, Biodiversity, Forests, Sea and Fisheries to the serious attacks on the rights of rural communities faced with the uncontrolled expansion of industrial wind power, like the situation currently experienced by the municipality of Puyrolland, in Charente-Maritime. This small town of 187 inhabitants, located between Surgères and Saint-Jean-d'Angély, is today under the threat of legal proceedings initiated by the company Windstrom France, a subsidiary of a German wind power developer, which is demanding 44 million euros in damages. This dispute follows the legitimate refusal of the municipal council to grant a right of way on its municipal roads, allowing the transport of materials necessary for the installation of seven new wind turbines on its territory. For more than a decade, this rural territory is faced with a progressive saturation of its landscape and its living environment by wind infrastructure. To date, Charente-Maritime has 276 masts installed on 57 wind farms, a figure which places the department among the most exposed to wind power development in New Aquitaine. This massive deployment took place without taking into account the wishes of local populations or respect for balances. environmental. In this context, the decision taken by the Puyrolland municipal council, in accordance with its powers in terms of regional planning and the free administration guaranteed by article 72 of the Constitution, constitutes the legitimate expression of municipal autonomy. However, through a questionable legal maneuver, the developer seeks to rely on a previous letter from the mayor, devoid of any legal significance, to circumvent the will democratically expressed by the municipality. This type of practice, which consists of using legal procedures to intimidate local elected officials and local residents, seriously undermines the fundamental principle of free administration of local authorities. It also reveals the current shortcomings of the law in terms of protecting municipalities against private operators, often endowed with means considerable financial resources. Furthermore, this situation highlights the growing imbalance between national objectives for the development of renewable energies and respect for the specificities and choices of territories. It seems essential to remember that rural municipalities must not become the adjustment variables of national energy policy, to the detriment of their landscape identity, their natural heritage and the well-being of their inhabitants. Thus, he asks what specific measures the Government plans to take to ensure respect for the rights of rural communities in the face of abuses by wind energy developers and to guarantee that such abuses can no longer happen again, neither in Puyrolland, nor elsewhere in Charente-Maritime or on the national territory.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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