NIMBY Power: Zornotzako erreferenduma eta ukazioaren indarra

Abstract

A few years ago, some promotors (the company Bizkaia Energia with the Irish Company ESB as a major partner, along with lesser participation by others) of a thermal plant that was to be built to generate gas-fired electricity in Amorebieta-Etxanon said that they would not build the plant against the wishes of the citizenry (the company later changed its stance); The Amorebieta-Etxano Town Council (where the Basque Nationalist Party, which is the leading party in the Basque Autonomous Community and which is in charge of implementing industrial policy, had the majority of seats on the council as well as the mayor’s office) came out against the project (thereby raising a lot of ruckus); the head of the Department of Industrial Affairs of the Basque Government, Josu Jon Imaz, said that the project should be located elsewhere (he also changed his mind later); there were serious arguments going on within the Basque Nationalist Party after the national leadership and the Amorebieta Congress came out against the project. A grass-roots movement (Zornotza Bizirik!!, or Amorebieta Alive!!) achieved all of this with resources usually afforded to such institutionalized means. The basis of the denunciation of the thermal plant lay in the fear that there might be too great a damage to the quality of life of the citizens of Amorebieta and the environment.