That’s why the electricity agreement is needed

Lisa Mazzone comments on reserve power plants, nuclear comeback and explains why she has changed her opinion in electricity market liberalization.

How much would you bet that Switzerland will create the energy transition by 2050?

Lisa Mazzone: Much. In Switzerland there is a fossil and nuclear lobbyist in the office of the Minister of Energy and a conservative parliament. But I trust the population, which has significantly demanded the energy transition in several coordination.

For example with the acceptance of the electricity law, which included 16 hydropower projects. Next bet: How many of them are built by 2050?

Be approved 16. Whether everyone is completely built depends on the economy. And whether the cantons, communities and companies can agree on the owners and concession questions.

And from the environmental associations.

No. We Greens were one of the creators of this compromise around the round table hydropower. We believe in these projects, even if there are cuts in nature: it’s about flooding valleys! We only demand that the applicable environmental laws are observed. If in doubt, the judiciary must be able to check this as an independent instance. Anything else would be a blank checks for the power industry. The current power play of a few bourgeois, on the other hand, provokes a referendum.

They address the application in the Council of States to suspend the association’s complaint law for the 16 hydropower projects. This as part of the acceleration decree – and it has to proceed faster, right?

That is exactly why the electricity law needed. There we gave electricity production a greater weight compared to environmental protection. This law is less than six months in force.

Is the circumcision of the association complaint a red line for you in any case? There would still be the opportunity to compromise.

If the template stays the way the Central Commission wants, it is unacceptable. Where, if not with such huge projects as with hydropower, is the association’s complaint right? The parliament creates a dangerous precedent for the insistent.