This Wednesday, the Aragonese Chambers of Commerce joined the opposition. With the support of the Basilio Paraíso Foundation, they submitted objections to the Royal Decree. The move was announced by José Miguel Sánchez, director general of the Zaragoza Chamber of Commerce, during the presentation on Wednesday of the report “Data Centers: From Scale to Value. A Guide to Generating Collective Benefits in Aragon.”
Sánchez said that “companies need stable regulation in order to invest, and changing it is disastrous for a country.” He therefore argued that “the rules of the game have to be clear when you come to invest.” He also said that once the decree is more firmly established, they will analyze and present its potential impact on GDP.
GOVERNMENT DELEGATE DEFENDS DECREE
Fernando Beltrán also commented on the issue. The Government delegate in Aragon defended the decree, saying it “brings order” to investments that had grown out of control and regulates “basic matters,” such as requiring a significant portion of the energy consumed by these data centers to come from renewable sources and ensuring that the centers meet the highest sustainability standards and requirements regarding water consumption.
Unlike Economy Minister Eva Valle, Beltrán believes the requirements are not “excessive.” The fact that none of the data centers seeking to come to Aragon meet them led the delegate to question whether the environmental impact statements issued by the regional government concern “a project of general interest for all Aragonese people or a project of particular interest to the companies promoting them.”
In this regard, the Socialist questioned the classification of these projects as being in the general interest when they have generated “opposition at the neighborhood level” and among local councils: “The Government of Aragon has never sat down with Red Eléctrica Española, the Ebro River Basin Authority or the Júcar River Basin Authority to discuss the requirements these centers must meet, nor with any of the mayors or residents of the municipalities that will host a data center. These municipalities will not collect the ICAE and are facing difficulties collecting the local taxes to which they are entitled.”
