Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV) deputy Julien Bayou and representatives of the Ecologie pour le Havre association and EELV Normandie announced on Tuesday that they were filing a new legal action against TotalEnergies’ Le Havre floating LNG terminal project.
Environmentalists lodge appeal against planned LNG terminal at Le Havre: A new battle for the environment amid energy tensions
Mr. Bayou and the association France Nature Environnement (FNE) had already lodged three appeals against this project, designed to create a new gas entry point into France against a backdrop of heightened energy tensions since the start of the war in Ukraine. All three requests were rejected on July 13 by the Rouen Administrative Court. This new request, which the environmental activists say they filed on Tuesday, is an appeal for excess of power coupled with a suspension injunction.
“As this is a summary procedure, we can expect a hearing within two or even three weeks (…) with a decision within four to six weeks in total,” Julien Bayou told a press conference.
The ecologist MP describes the LNG terminal project as “deleterious for safety and environmental reasons” and believes it has become pointless. The Rouen Administrative Court gave its ruling last July. The Rouen Administrative Court gave its ruling last July. In his view, such a facility could be set up when national liquefied natural gas processing capacity had to be increased to guarantee security of supply.
But for Julien Bayou, if “when the war in Ukraine broke out, we were very worried about Russian gas suspensions, today gas stocks are full, we’re at 90% at European level and 86% in France”.
“There’s no reason to give this gift of ‘pollution permits’ to Total,” he said.
This week in Le Havre, EELV ecologists are holding their “summer days”, from August 24 to 27.
