From Beaucaire to Fos-sur-Mer, a vast public debate to avoid seeing industrial decarbonization derailed

"Bury the line, zero pylons in the Gard as elsewhere!" On roundabouts, in fields, on municipal billboards... In the Gard as in the western Bouches-du-Rhône, the year-long fight against the installation of a 400,000-volt extra-high-voltage (EHV) line, which is to extend over some sixty kilometers to Fos-sur-Mer, continues. And it has already achieved one victory: the establishment of a citizen debate, XXL version.

This consultation, which opened on April 2 and is scheduled to last until July 13, does not only concern the THT line. The State, which referred the matter to the National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP) through the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur prefecture, wanted to make it a comprehensive debate on the "decarbonization and reindustrialization " of the Fos-sur-Mer industrial port zone (ZIP) and the Berre lagoon. The goal? To inform the population and lead discussions on the future of this territory of 300,000 inhabitants, but also on 34 large-scale industrial projects, in the steel, hydrogen, and photovoltaic sectors, and the creation of transport or network infrastructure in three departments: Gard, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, and Bouches-du-Rhône.

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