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RTE, the subsidiary of EDF implicated for the destruction of protected species

For years, EDF’s electricity transmission subsidiary RTE communicates with great fanfare about its environmental initiatives. Whether it is to brag about their system of preservation of Bonelli’s eagle in the Bouches-du-Rhône, or their agreements with France Nature Environment and the Bird Protection League (LPO) – with whom RTE protects for example Ospreys in the Allier.

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However, StreetPress learned last June that the public prosecutor of Nancy (54) had been seized for “two reports from an environmental protection association”. The LPO 54 in Meurthe-et-Moselle and Loana (Lorraine Nature Association) in Meuse (55) evoke “attacks on protected species during the maintenance of electricity pylons”, according to the prosecution. Two investigations have been opened.

“We ended up with nests and stillborn birds on the ground”

We are at the start of 2022 and RTE must repaint its electricity pylons. Mandatory maintenance every 15 years to fight against rust. To do this, she contacts the head of the local Bird Protection League, agreement obliges. RTE and its subcontractors ask the association an inventory of the 100 pylons of the high voltage line which starts from the town of Bauzemont to Xousse (54). Christophe (1), a member of the association, explains:

“Birds make nests on the pylons at certain times of the year. They were told to take precautions with these species. In April 2022, we even made an inventory of the nests by pylons. »

In May 2022, the members of the LPO 54 go on a new tour and realize that the nests have been removed from the pylons :

“There were three or even four subcontracting companies (from RTE, note). Some had left the nests, others had destroyed them. We ended up with nests on the ground with stillborn birds. »

The association decides to make a report to the Nancy prosecutor’s office. Among the birds concerned, there is in particular the common raven, “a protected species”emphasizes Christophe de la LPO 54. Man also mentions other species which, if they are not protected, can only be trapped, killed or their habitats destroyed under certain conditions (2). He cites the carrion crow, rooks or falcons such as the kestrel, the squire and the pilgrim.

A breach of contract

At the beginning of May, two project managers from the Loana association were also surprised to find “workers from a subcontracting company of RTE repainting the pylon during the nesting and breeding season for birds” in the Meuse. According to them, the workers were not unaware of it. “For us, there is intentionality”explains Guillaume Leblanc, one of the leaders of the association.

The action of the subcontractors apparently had no consequence on the nest he had been monitoring since 2012. But the problem lies elsewhere. As for the LPO, RTE has an agreement with Loana which stipulates that the EDF subsidiary “must adapt the periods of intervention according to nesting”, details Guillaume Leblanc. However, this time and unlike the story with the LPO 54, “no request for an inventory of birds of the entire power line has been sent to us” et RTE treated “all the pylons” of the power line without asking questions. Guillaume Leblanc enraged:

“With this internal policy to RTE, if it is applied everywhere in France, we can ask ourselves the question of a deleterious and consequent impact on biodiversity. »

Who gave the order?

Following these two cases, the Nancy public prosecutor’s office seized the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) of each department, which conducts the investigation. In Meurthe-et-Moselle, for the “destruction of nests of protected species”, as the then prosecutor François Pérain called it, the issue is to know who RTE or its subcontractors were the order givers of the death of the birds.

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In its internal documents, RTE highlights the importance it attaches to the environment. In reality, it is sometimes quite different. /
Credits: StreetPress

Contacted, RTE made it clear that the company had been engaged on these issues “for more than 30 years” and highlights its partnership with the League for the Protection of Birds, signed in 2013. However, in its same response, it blames the LPO and excuses its subcontractors:

“As you mentioned and despite all the precautions taken to protect the life of birds near the lines, it may happen in rare cases that one of our subcontractors in charge of a maintenance operation, such as painting necessary for the life of air links, displaces or damages a nest of a protected species that had not been identified prior to the intervention. »

Implying that the associations have not carried out an exhaustive inventory, the company nevertheless ensures that their relationship with the LPO are “very good”. The company even stresses that these partnerships “are important for better identifying the species, their places of passage and, if necessary, making it possible to define, in conjunction with the associations, the respectful provisions to be implemented before our interventions”. It is up to the courts to decide on these famous “respectful provisions”.

(1) The first name has been changed.

(2) They may be trapped by approved persons, or killed under prefectural authorization or during the hunting season.

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