New presidential veto causes annoyance and opposition announces that they will vote glacier project without agreement

A new veto sent the President of the Republic, Sebastián Piñera, causing for the second time the annoyance of some opposition senators who will respond by putting the glacier and environmental crime projects on the table for a vote, without waiting for an agreement with the Executive.

The veto in question refers to the pro-investment project that was recently dispatched by Congress, with a series of changes compared to the original project, so many that the senator Juan Antonio Coloma (UDI) described it as “inconsequential.”

Specific The veto suppresses Article 11 quater of the legislation because the essence proposed by the government regarding giving legal value to relevance was modified, that is to say, to the answer given by the Environmental Service to an individual about whether or not his project required an Environmental Impact Study, granting it a “binding character”.

After going through several commissions, the answer was removed from the binding character.

“This reduces legal certainty to the investment holders. It is certainly counterproductive for a project called “proinvestment” to contain measures that are contrary to the legal certainty that requires a favorable climate for investment, “says the text of the veto that entered the Senate today.

This legislative action caused annoyance among the opposition, which was pointed out by the senator Guido Girardi (PPD) indicating that this project was long discussed and dispatched:

“This is an environmental dictatorship in which President Piñera does not respect Parliament. Today a company can request not to do an Environmental Impact Study but only a Declaration, but the Superintendency can cancel it because there have been fraudulent situations. I want to say that most of the Puchuncaví Quintero projects have been approved that way without doing an environmental impact study, thanks to the relevance. That is what the government wants, to favor polluting companies ”.

The senator stated that the government, by making the response binding, hopes that it will not be subsequently reviewed by the Superintendency.

In response, the senator anticipated that the truce on environmental matters with the government is ending and two projects that have been under negotiation will be put to a vote. “We are going to table next week the glacier project as it is without reaching an agreement where the government has lobbied enormously against it; and another project that the government has been sabotaging, such as environmental crime.”

The environmental crime bill is in the Constitution Commission, and the glaciers in Mining, both led by socialist senators, Alfonso de Urresti and Alvaro Elizalde, respectively.