The PP gets Congress to ask the government to extend the useful life of nuclear power plants thanks to Junts and ERC

The Congress yesterday approved the proposition of the Popular party that urges the Government to maintain nuclear centrals extending its useful life, supporting their economic sustainability, dialoguing with the municipalities and communities in which they are installed and that would be affected by their closure and claiming the CNMC and to the electrical system operator (Electric Red) Reports on the economic impact that the closing scheduled by the Government would have.

The initiative of the popular, which is not binding for the Executive, went ahead with 171 votes in favor of 169 against and 14 abstentions. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, He was the only deputy who did not vote.

On this occasion the proposal has prospered thanks to the abstention of the seven deputies of Together and of the seven of ERC. They have been those who have inclined the balance in favor of the proposition of the PP supported by Vox and UPN.

With this result, the Chamber asks the Executive to extend the life of nuclear that, according to government plans will have to close in a staggered way between 2027 and 2035.

The initiative was defended on Tuesday before the Plenary by the popular deputy Guillermo Mariscal who accused the Government of having permersed a legal framework for “strangular” and economic that this closure will cause.

For the PP, the closing project provided by the Government cannot be qualified more than “energy suicide” supported solely on “ideological” approaches but not on economic or environmental arguments.

Vox also defended the popular proposal for understanding that extending the lives of the plants is “common sense” as long as maintaining the opposite position is “ecophanatic”.

From Junts, the game of Puigdemont That he finally abstained, emphasized the fact that nuclear energy is key to Catalonia, a community in which one in two inhabitants consumes nuclear energy from the three plants that exist in their territory. Their spokesman also regretted that the government has no plan to industrially convert the regions that are affected by the closures.

The PNV preferred to allude to the risks involved in waste management and assumed to justify its vote against the extension of the absence of a warning of useful life by the affected companies.

The socialists expressed their resounding opposition insisting that nuclear energy is neither cheap nor clean and also entails risks. The PSOE accused the popular of not believing in renewable energies or in a fair energy transition.