PL 5829 has mobilized Brazilians, says Lafayette Andrada

One of the bills that is causing the most talk at the moment is Bill 5829, which aims to create the Legal Framework for DG (distributed generation) in Brazil. Authored by Congressman Silas Câmara (Republicans-AM) and with Congressman Lafayette Andrada (Republicans/MG) as rapporteur, the text is expected to be voted on early next week in the Chamber of Deputies.

In an interview given this Friday (23) to Canal Solar, Lafayette Andrada highlighted that the proposal has everything to be approved in the Plenary, including with a large margin of votes. “We can see that, among the group of 513 deputies, the overwhelming majority is in favor. There is only a small minority group that is against”, he explained.

At the beginning of the week, the Chamber of Deputies opened a online poll on its website to find out the population's opinion on the measure. Until this afternoon, the vast majority of votes agreed with the approval of the project.

“These polls are very important because they show what society thinks, because the votes that are there are representative of the whole of Brazil. This is an important sign and the deputies, as representatives of the people, always follow the results of these polls. This poll is more or less reproducing the score inside the Chamber. I believe that we will have more than 70% of the votes in favor on the day of the vote”, pointed out the rapporteur.

Read more: Poll measures public opinion support for PL 5829

Initially, PL 5829 was scheduled to be voted on at the beginning of last year, but ended up being postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The topic was only revived in December, when the majority of deputies voted to make the text urgent, allowing the document to skip some steps in the processing process and go straight to voting in the Plenary.

During the interview, Lafayette also defended the approval of the document, claiming that it will help democratize the use of solar energy in the country.

“Our text seeks exactly that: to democratize, popularize and provide tools so that the poor and less privileged are also able to have solar energy to run their business and their lives in their little place in a rural area or in an urban area in a more simple”, said the deputy.

According to the parliamentarian, Brazil is a privileged country when it comes to renewable energy, because of its high incidence of sunlight and wind, in addition to its abundant rivers. “The project seeks, precisely, to replace energy from fossil fuel thermoelectric plants, which are polluting and much more expensive, with clean and cheaper energy.”

What is needed to be approved?

According to Lafayette, PL 5829 is already on the agenda and has not been approved yet because of the actions of political groups against the proposed law. According to him, some deputies were working behind the scenes to postpone the vote and save time.

“There are always some deputies who are against certain projects and who, sometimes, try to use some regulatory resources to try to postpone them. They can present, for example, a request to postpone the vote, which will have to be evaluated by the plenary. This request is never approved and only serves to delay the vote”, he commented.

Lafayette, however, emphasized that the bill is already being processed as an urgent matter and that it is only a matter of time before it is put to a vote. The deputy still believes that the text will be voted on next week, given that it has already received a favorable urgent opinion. “The plenary has already agreed that it is an important matter and that it needs to be voted on quickly, so much so that it is on the agenda for the day. Now all that is needed are adjustments and understandings between leaders to effectively begin its vote.

Listen to the full interview with Congressman Lafayette de Andrada.