A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #16-25 - NO TAP Struggles. Environmental Destruction Guaranteed by Law (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

It has been known for some time that the law is not the same for 
everyone: exemptions, derogations, tax and legal shields have formalized 
the substantial difference in treatment for those who find themselves in 
front of a judge. Recently, some events connected to the southern gas 
corridor that affects Italy with its last two sections prove that even 
formally the law varies depending on who is subject to it. For example, 
the trial in Lecce against the TAP company accused of environmental 
devastation in Malendugno. TAP has even denied the methane emissions, 
strong in the fact that the law does not provide that third parties are 
responsible for the controls that are entrusted to the companies, but 
the journalists Vittoria Torsello and Teresa Di Mauro equipped with 
thermal cameras went to the TAP terminal, where it connects to the SNAM 
network, in Melendugno, and observed the ongoing methane leaks from two 
TAP vents and one from SNAM. Such leaks had already been observed in 
2021, as well as in the latest observations of 2024. Despite this, both 
TAP and SNAM deny the gas leaks from their plants. Still regarding the 
southern gas corridor, the rules for environmental impact assessment 
(EIA) in Italy are not respected: in Melendugno the SNAM vent was not 
even declared in the EIA! It should be noted that methane is a gas 80 
times more climate-altering than carbon dioxide and before being 
filtered it is rich in mercury, arsenic, heavy metals and other toxic 
substances. It is not clean at all! Nevertheless, the doubling of the 
TAP line has been proposed.

Vittoria Torsello and Teresa Di Mauro claim that there is a strong 
lobbying effort to pass off methane as a clean energy source. Certainly 
the last Italian governments, including the current Meloni government, 
have always been close to the Azerbaijani government. Azerbaijan is in 
conflict with Armenia and has practiced ethnic cleansing against the 
Armenians who have lived in Azerbaijan for centuries. Aside from these 
international implications, the southern gas corridor in Italy enjoys 
special preferential treatment, as is the case in Sulmona, where the 
compression and thrust plant is being built, the true beating heart of 
the SNAM Adriatic Network, the last stretch of the southern gas 
corridor. These works are bringing to light pre-Roman settlements and 
Roman roads. Various environmental associations, including the 
committees for the defense of the environment of Sulmona, have asked the 
Municipality of Sulmona, the Abruzzo Region and the Superintendence of 
archaeological heritage of Sulmona to view the project for this 
construction site. None of these bodies has access to the project for 
this construction site! The list of state failures to comply with the 
much acclaimed legality is not over: the SNAM Adriatic Network has been 
artfully divided into six sections and each of them has been the subject 
of a specific VIA; even the project for the Sulmona compression and 
thrust plant has its own VIA, without taking into account that in 
reality it is a single project, it is a single work and therefore there 
should be a single Environmental Impact Assessment. Again: the Draghi 
government when it authorized the two sections Sulmona Foligno and 
Foligno Sestino gave precise prescriptions: respect for archaeological 
assets (in Sulmona you can clearly see how they are respected), respect 
for the water table and avoid seismically active faults. The entire 
route planned for the SNAM Adriatic Network crosses seismically active 
faults, such as in Sulmona, where there is the Monte Morrone fault, the 
most active fault in Europe, then passes by the city of L'Aquila, 
devastated by the 2009 earthquake with 35 deaths, and in Foligno, where 
the Megasdotto would pass through the town of Plestia, another important 
archaeological site, with a seismic fault that caused the seismic swarm 
of 1997/98, with numerous damages and 11 deaths. Let us remember that 
among the prescriptions of the Draghi government there was that of 
avoiding active faults! Two years ago, when Doglioni was director of the 
National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, declared that at least 
another three years were needed to finish examining the entire planned 
route and therefore that at least another year should be waited before 
deciding, but SNAM went a long way without waiting for the outcome of 
the investigations entrusted by the government to the INGV. At the same 
time, and despite the fact that methane gas leaks in Melendugno have 
been documented, despite the fact that a water table in Melendugno has 
been drained and that centuries-old olive trees have been uprooted from 
the land where they were cultivated, the judge of the Court of Lecce has 
acquitted the top management of TAP from the charges of environmental 
devastation. Italian law absolves the bosses on 05/12/2025! Almost a 
month earlier, six NO SNAM activists were reported to the Public 
Prosecutor's Office in Sulmona for violating the ban issued by the 
Police Commissioner of L'Aquila, Fabrizio Mancini, on April 17, during 
the protest in front of the construction site of the SNAM power plant 
under construction in Case Pente.
The six activists are: Mario Pizzola, Daniela Frittella, Lorenzo 
Pagliaro, Alba Silvani, Emilio Secchiatti and Giorgia Vitullo. The 
Police Commissioner had issued a decree ordering that the protest should 
take place far from the entrance to the construction site; this was to 
"not hinder the traffic of construction vehicles" and "not disturb the 
workers". The decree specified that, in the event of a violation, the 
offenders would incur criminal liability under art. 18 of the Police 
Laws of 1931 which, in this specific case, provide for a prison sentence 
of up to one year.
The environmentalists, faced with the ban, had decided to carry out the 
protest anyway, defined as "nonviolent civil obedience" to highlight 
that, if the law is the same for everyone, this must also apply to SNAM 
which instead violated the VIA Decree of 7 March 2011 which, as a 
fundamental condition for the opening of the construction site, 
establishes the fulfillment of numerous ante operam requirements. This 
did not happen. Furthermore, SNAM continues the work despite the fact 
that the building permit has expired. A complaint was filed with the 
Public Prosecutor's Office of Sulmona two years ago but no action has 
been taken to date. SNAM has also destroyed important evidence with its 
bulldozers, such as the traces of a village existing in Case Pente 4200 
years ago, in the protohistoric age. Another illegality committed by the 
multinational gas company is the felling of 317 olive trees that, 
according to current legislation, should have been uprooted and relocated.
Is it a coincidence that SNAM and TAP have freedom of action and can 
ignore the laws while those who contest them are denounced with the use 
of laws enacted during the fascist regime?

Umbrian anarchist circle Sana Utopia

https://umanitanova.org/32154-2/
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