La Robla Power Plant Demolished: Spain's Energy Dilemma and 750,000 Euro Tax Loss

Farewell to the La Robla power plant: 750,000 euros less in local taxes and a town condemned to subsidies

The demolition of the La Robla power plant (León) is not just the falling of a chimney. It is the symbol of an energy policy that destroys generation capacity while Europe suffers the worst electricity price crisis in decades. During the event, about one hundred people watched their industrial past vanish. No one protested. There were laughs, trivial comments, and the feeling that the flock meekly attends to its own impoverishment.

The plant, owned by Naturgy, burned coal —imported from Russia in its final years— and provided direct and indirect employment to hundreds of families. Its closure is a heavy blow to municipal coffers: 750,000 euros annually in industrial local property tax (IBI) that disappear. The official argument is the ecological transition, but the data invite skepticism.

The economic hole no one wants to see

The fiscal impact is undeniable. La Robla loses that substantial amount of its own revenue, just as the municipality was already carrying a high unemployment rate and income below the provincial average. According to some analyses, unemployment has dropped, but because people emigrate. The active population flees. There is no industrial alternative: the coal mine that employed 1,500 people closed years ago. The promise of renewables sounds like a toast to the sun when backup infrastructure is lacking.

Meanwhile, coal remains profitable. Its price has skyrocketed to levels unseen in 200 years, and Germany —far from closing its plants— burns lignite by the ton and has dismantled a wind farm to expand an open-pit mine. The company RWE justifies the measure due to the energy crisis resulting from the war in Ukraine. Spain, in contrast, insists on demolition.

European energy schizophrenia

The contrast is brutal. Germany, which closed its domestic coal mines years ago, now imports Polish and Russian coal. Poland refused to dismantle its thermal plants. China is building new coal capacity at a pace exceeding the total installed capacity of the US. According to Exxon projections, fossil fuels will account for 69% of primary energy in 2050. Shell and BP, after years of green posturing, have returned to investing in oil and gas. The only schizophrenia seems to be Spanish.

The closure of La Robla responds to political, not technical or economic, criteria. The decision was made in a context of skyrocketing gas prices and growing external dependence. Demolishing a coal plant when there is no firm backup alternative —renewables need gas or storage— is, at best, reckless. And doing so while gas supply is threatened and prices have multiplied by five is directly suicidal.

Who votes for their own ruin?

The 2019 election results in La Robla draw a revealing map: PSOE obtains 43.9% of the vote; PP, 17.7%; Vox, 14.1%; Podemos, 12.2%; Cs, 5.5%. The majority vote went to parties that executed the mining closure and thermal demolition. The captive voter, trapped in the clientelism of subsidies and basin plans, barely reacts. The uncomfortable question: how can one continue to vote for those who destroy your industrial fabric?

The Leonese paradox repeats throughout Spain. Areas dependent on mining and heavy industry systematically vote for parties that close mines and thermal plants. Castilla y León, with its hydroelectric and mining potential, empties out while its political representatives applaud the energy transition. The result is a zombie region: elderly, early retirees, and civil servants who live on small pensions.

Demolition is not the end

The plant falls, but no credible redevelopment plan has been designed. Mini-hydroelectric plants, which could take advantage of river drops without environmental impact, are not promoted. Pumped-storage dams, essential for storing renewables, have not been built for two decades. Meanwhile, electricity company executives admit it is better to demolish before necessity forces reopening. Just in case.

The complicit silence of local media —covering the demolition as a spectacle— and the resignation of the population complete the picture. Someone should ask whether the energy transition is, in reality, an excuse to deindustrialize Spain and increase external dependence. For now, the laughs and chuckles hide the ruin. But the day gas runs out and there is no coal or plants, the flock will stop laughing.