A bill to facilitate the construction of six new nuclear reactors will be presented to the Council of Ministers “early November,” said Wednesday the Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne in presenting the government’s energy strategy to the Senate.
“We must facilitate and accelerate the development of these projects” of reactors, the first of which must be commissioned by 2035, “particularly by reducing certain administrative procedures: this is the meaning of the bill on nuclear power that will be presented to the Council of Ministers in early November,” said the head of government in opening a debate on energy in the Senate.
Elisabeth Borne also said that “by the end of the month”, parliamentarians would examine the bill that aims to “accelerate the development” of renewable energy.
About wind power, she wished to the senators “improve the integration into the landscape, and better plan the facilities to rebalance the development of wind power on the territory, and avoid the anarchic implementation of parks.
“A diversified mix is an opportunity, a protection. That’s why we must move forward on two legs, renewable and nuclear,” the Prime Minister pleaded, presenting the government’s energy strategy, which is based on “three pillars”: sobriety, “a decarbonized production of electricity around nuclear and renewable energy”, and finally “the development of new energy carriers such as decarbonized hydrogen”.
“Sobriety and electrification will change our uses and our daily lives” and “will protect us from future energy shocks and crises,” she argued. “They will help lower bills. By consuming less, we will spend less. I will ensure that the energy transition is a fair transition,” she promised.
Elisabeth Borne also hoped that the “safety net” set up for local authorities in difficulty due to rising energy prices would be “extended to 2023” and that it could benefit “all authorities”.
Local authorities facing difficulties due to rising energy and food prices can, since the beginning of October, ask for “an advance” on the state aid planned to compensate for the increase in their expenses.
