A rural hotel in Teruel requests precautionary measures to the TSJM to stop the Maestrazgo Cluster.
It argues that this megaproject would be built in an area “destined to be the largest natural park in Aragón”. The rural hotel Mas de Cebrián, located in the municipality of Puertomilgalvo (Teruel), has requested precautionary measures to the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) to paralyze the Maestrazgo Cluster, which plans the installation of 25 wind farms and two photovoltaic farms in the vicinity and which has administrative authorization for its construction that would be carried out by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners CIP and Forestalia. In this way, it joins the presentation of the precautionary measures an administrative appeal against the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO) before the High Court of Justice of Madrid that have carried out entities such as the Foundation for the Conservation of the Bearded Vulture, the Platform No to the MAT of the North of Castelló, the Citizen Movement Teruel Existe and the Platform for the Landscapes of Teruel and the City Council of Morella. From the rural hotel Mas de Cebrian, one of its leaders, Jesus Broch, has argued the request for injunctions because this megaproject would rise in an area “destined to be the largest natural park in Aragon”. In addition to the fact that part of the wind turbines and solar panels “are planned to be installed” in ZEPA -Special Protection Area for Birds- and LIC -Site of Community Interest-, which is part of the Natura Network, where there are extensive livestock producers, he said in statements to Europa Press. The Maestrazgo Cluster includes 125 wind turbines of more than 200 meters high in 25 wind farms and another two photovoltaic ones with 174,000 solar panels and the evacuation lines adjacent to the rural tourist establishment of Mas de Cebrián and the farmland of Mas de Domene, both in the municipality of Puertomingalvo, located in the Sierra de Gúdar. It will affect the deforestation of 125 hectares, the impact of 300 kilometers of wide forest tracks, 173 kilometers of power lines and the felling of more than 2,000,000 adult trees. These are part of the consequences of the irreversible environmental impact of the administrative authorization of construction and declaration of public utility granted to the Maestrazgo Cluster, that is to say, to the promoting companies CIP and Forestalia by the Spanish Government. In addition, it entails “obvious effects” on the circular economy, local agriculture, extensive livestock farming, inland tourism and biodiversity, with an unlimited aggression to the Natura 2000 Network and its birdlife.
Reputation of renewables
He has warned that the responsibility before “such an absurdity” will affect the reputation of the sustainability indicator in the implementation of green energy for the promoting companies, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners CIP and Forestalia, which claims to exploit Masía I and Masía II, the two solar energy macroplants to “supply free electricity” to the affected villages, a fact that has been denied by the general director of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Javier Prado, in a statement “full of doubts in this regard”. It is evident, according to Broch, that “there is an alleged subsidiary responsibility” in the granting of the previous reports of the INAGA to authorize the EIS – Environmental Impact Statement – of the Maestrazgo Cluster. The “bad practices” of the MITECO in the management and planning of the territory to implement renewables “reaffirm the lack of ethics” of the project, by authorizing the construction of the “largest macro power plant in Spain in a territory destined to be one of the largest natural parks in Aragon”, so the lawsuit of Mas de Cebrian, admitted for processing in the administrative litigation chamber of the TSJ of Madrid, is “a step backwards for all those involved in this mess, which should be studied, because there has already been in these cases jurisprudence applied in other autonomous communities”. The High Court of Justice of Madrid, said Broch, is the “guarantor” to order the precautionary measures for environmental damage of the Maestrazgo Cluster project, promoted by CIP and Forestalia for the Sierra de Gúdar. The seriousness of the environmental damage to the environment makes the environmental impact statement challengeable. The activity that Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Forestalia intend to carry out affects the ecosystem of the natural area. The profit motive of the developers should not take precedence over the environmental protection of the surroundings, he demanded. In addition, he said that “there were indications of environmental crime appreciated by the Prosecutor’s Office of Teruel and the Civil Guard, but for the moment, the pronouncement is unknown”. The minimization of the environmental impact would have irreversible consequences with a devastating effect on the avian fauna, Broch considered. The criterion of the specialists who have written the expert reports warns of the effects that endanger the survival of eleven habitats of community interest, species such as the Bonelli’s eagle and bearded vulture, in addition to the consequences of the fragmentation of ecological corridors and the connectivity of the SPAs.
Suspicions of corruption
The principle of prevention in law means that a circumstantial evaluation of all the interests in conflict “grants the precautionary protection” and the suspension would be extended to the contentious-administrative route. ” This macro-project, which has been judicialized from beginning to end, has uncovered suspicions of corruption from the beginning of its processing,” said Broch. In this regard, he said that the interpellations of the deputies of CHA, Teruel Existe and VOX in the Cortes de Aragon on the bills submitted by their political groups against the Cluster “have only reaffirmed that there is no consensus in Aragon, nor in the province of Teruel” for the implementation of this macroproject. The Government of Aragon, he urged, “should take note” of this judicialized story admitted for processing. The appeals presented individually to each of the parks to the resolutions published from the Council of Ministers will have to give reasons to Mas de Cebrian and entities in defense of the territory by the affections of the Cluster, which happens to paralyze it to exempt environmental damage to the Sierra de Gúdar.
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