Efetividade transativa do sistema de AIA federal de sistemas de transmissão de energia elétrica

Abstract

In the context of pressures to change the environmental impact assessment (EIA), guided by the perception of a costly and time-consuming process, mainly propagated by proponents, is relevant to generate evidence about the results and the resources employed, that is, elements of transactive effectiveness. The projects of electric power transmission systems are relevant in this debate, because there are official reports of delays linked to environmental licensing and the expansion of the grid is increasing. So, the objective of this research was to generate evidence and analyze the transactive effectiveness of the federal EIA system of electric power transmission systems. Thirty-eight projects, submitted to environmental licensing between 2011 and 2018, were selected for collection and analysis of data on results, professionals, time and cost. The framework of Bond, Morrison-Saunders and Howitt (2013) was adapted to EIA of projects with a key question and 5 criteria for investigation. The sources of information were the literature, documents (licensing processes, environmental studies, concession contracts and reviews of concession contracts) and the perception of three groups of actors involved, the environmental analysts of the licensing agency, the consultants responsible for preparing the studies and the proponents of the projects. From the perspective of the results, the criteria related to the information quality of the environmental studies were considered unmet, because the evaluation, using Lee and Colley Review Package, indicated points of weakness and thresholds in several tasks, including some considered core of the EIA. Also, in terms of EIA results, the actors understood that the contribution of the EIA system to the projects was high, with emphasis on the improvements of the locational alternatives, reduction of vegetation suppression and definition of the overall mitigation package. The criteria for the availability and training of professionals was considered partially met, because apparently there are professionals, possibly not in ideal quantity for the environmental agency, but the training was indicated as an intervening factor. Time criteria was considered partially met, because despite the processes were on average faster compared to the literature for full EIAs, a high estimate of unproductive time of the stages of analysis of the environmental agency was verified. The criteria to determine whether the EIA involved reasonable costs was considered unmet, because the cost estimate of the EIA was high for both the proponent and the environmental agency compared to the literature. Therefore, based on the criteria and the perception of the actors, it is concluded that the EIA system in question has a medium/low transactional effectiveness with the main intervening factors the lack of focus on the relevant issues at the scope stage, the low quality of environmental studies, the slow response and the lack of infrastructure of the agencies involved and the need for training of those involved. Finall...