WORLD WORLDWIDE FRANCE News Journal Update - (en) France, UCL AL #336 - Ecology, Loire-Atlantique: Conversion of the Cordemais plant (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 On January 20, 2023, the State gave its agreement for the conversion of the

Cordemais thermal power plant (near Nantes) into a "biomass" power plant. If this
announcement is indeed a union victory, the fact remains that not everything is
perfect on the environmental level, and that conversions have little chance of
meeting the needs of the climate emergency, as long as the we will not leave the
framework imposed by the capitalist economy. ---- The conversion project of the
Cordemais power plant has therefore finally been validated by the government.
This project, presented by the employees and the CGT, and called Ecocombust, will
therefore replace coal with wood pellets produced from class B wood waste (little
reused or "recovered" for the moment) and "sawmill related products" called PCS.

As all coal-fired power plants are due to be closed, many employees of previously
closed power plants found themselves in Cordemais. In 2017 then 2018 it was
announced, in front of those who had sometimes just arrived for only two or three
years, that it was once again their turn. In December 2018, a sixty-four-day
strike enabled the employees, with the CGT union, to develop a conversion project
for the power plant: the production of "black pellets" to supply the thermal
power plant (in instead of coal, therefore - it will be progressive, from 2025 to
2027).

The mobilizations were numerous: strikes and walkouts, public debates,
questioning of elected officials, deputies, senators, Region, Ministry... until a
new strike, at the end of 2021, triggered at the instigation of the employees,
and which zeroed out electricity production.

The Cordemais plant (Loire-Atlantique)
Of course, the international situation is not foreign to this decision, the fears
on the risks of lack of capacity of EDF to answer the peaks of consumption in
electricity, in winter, contributed to adjourn this decision of closing of the
Plant . But, after a lot of procrastination, acceptance then setback on the part
of EDF, the Government, or other actors in the project, this decision delights
the employees who have succeeded in mobilizing to link social and environmental
issues.

A limited ecological scope
However, is this solution "virtuous" ecologically? Several environmental
associations, such as Friends of the Earth or the Climate Action Network point to
a number of problems: attempts to produce "black pellets" for this use, made for
example in Canada, have been failures; Class B wood and PCS used to supply the
Plant would be more useful in the manufacture of wood panels in construction than
as a source of fuel; because this conflict on the use of this waste would
encourage the manufacturers of panels intended for construction to continue to
use more cut wood (pressure on the forests); finally, this solution would not
make it possible to save all the current jobs at the Centrale. Associations also
point to energy waste and air pollution.

It is clear that any "solution" or reconversion, within the framework of
capitalist interests, will only be partial or insufficient. If we want a real
ecological and social rupture, we will have to seize the means of production, and
overthrow bourgeois power through the revolutionary action of the workers, in
order to decide what we want.

Yann (UCL Nantes)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Loire-Atlantique-Reconversion-de-l-usine-de-Cordemais
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca