Deforestation in the Mühlviertel?

Massive resistance against a “second Ohlsdorf”

A 110-kv underground cable line could be laid parallel to the WAG loop gas pipeline in the Mühlviertel region, according to Neos.(Bild: Gas Connect Austria (GCA))

An overhead power line project planned by the black-blue government majority in the Mühlviertel is threatening 44 hectares of forest. The Neos want to lay the cable underground and accuse the ÖVP of "foul play" due to a canceled expert hearing. A citizens' initiative announces legal action.

"There is a threat of a second Ohlsdorf." This is how Neos member of the National Council Karin Doppelbauer recently put it in the "Krone " newspaper. As is well known, a considerable area of forest was cleared there for a company construction area. The same thing - only on an even larger scale - is now threatening the Mühlviertel, says Doppelbauer. The ÖVP wants to push through an overhead power line project there, for which the clearing would be necessary. The Neos idea of laying the 110 kv line as an underground cable parallel to the WAG loop gas pipeline from Oberkappel to Bad Leonfelden - and thus largely sparing the forest - is rejected by the ÖVP.

Only compliant experts were admitted, who are known for their indiscriminate reproduction of the provincial government's positions.

Karin Doppelbauer, Neos-Energiesprecherin im Nationalrat

Hearing as a "disinformation campaign"
It is basing this on a hearing at which experts in the Committee for Site Development presented the underground cable solution as technically impossible. "A targeted disinformation campaign by compliant experts who are known for presenting the positions of the state government in an undifferentiated manner," says Doppelbauer. She accuses Black-Blue of playing a "nasty, undemocratic game". Because: another expert hearing in the state parliament has now been canceled without further ado.

"Years of legal dispute looming"
In addition to the political debate, according to Neos, the government is also facing "years of legal disputes": a citizens' initiative has announced "massive legal resistance".