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Finally a boost in the very sad file of nitrogen – this is how the cabinet will have received Wednesday morning the decree of summary of the Council of State. The highest administrative court ruled that the minister’s set “cut-off limit” for nitrogen rainfall of 25 kilometers for individual projects could stand. This is particularly good news for the government and for the whole of the Netherlands developing projects, which again faced months-long delays in granting permits when the limit was removed.
No press release yet on the A15
The interim decision follows more than two years of litigation over the ViA15 route decision, plans to extend the A15 to the A12 at the German border. The Board has yet to make a final decision on the route decision on Wednesday. Due to the great social importance, the question of the cut-off limit was first considered. The central question is: up to how many kilometers from an individual project should you measure nitrogen precipitation – of great importance for permits for all construction projects and livestock farms that emit nitrogen. ‘nitrogen.
The cut-off limit for individual projects was 5 kilometers until 2022, but was set at 25 kilometers by the minister after a previous interim decision by the State Council. Environmental organizations strongly criticize the scientific basis of this 25 kilometer limit. They talk about a new goat path for licensing, in which all nitrogen that falls outside the 25 kilometer limit is not taken into account. It was up to the Council of State to assess whether the justification for the 25 kilometer limit, based in part on research by RIVM and the TNO, was strong enough.
The result can be summarized as follows: you have to draw a line somewhere, and this line is the best available with today’s science, says environmental lawyer Rachid Benhadi. “The judge is in effect saying that from 25 kilometers on it can no longer be said with sufficient certainty whether a certain nitrogen deposit is from an individual project. And with that uncertainty, you cannot refuse a permit. With the current calculation model and the 25 kilometer limit, it is possible, and it can therefore be maintained.
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Read also: Four projects that show how deep the nitrogen crisis is in the Netherlands
Surprising result
The fact that the Council of State sided with the firm surprises many lawyers. During the long and sometimes very technical procedure, the judges were advised by the STAB, an advisory body on administrative law for land use planning and the environment. In their opinion, the experts said that science nowhere prescribes a maximum cut-off limit. According to them, the Minister’s choice to go 25 kilometers was not made on the basis of new scientific knowledge.
In advance, the lawyers and other experts also took into account the fact that the final judgment of the Council of State could very well take place differently, and that the cut-off limit of 25 kilometers could no longer be used. But the Council thinks otherwise. The minister set the cut-off threshold on the basis of the “best scientific knowledge”, the judges said on Wednesday morning. The limit limit of 25 kilometers is therefore “acceptable”. In addition, similar thresholds are also used in neighboring countries – where the distances are sometimes even smaller.
The judges acknowledge that the nitrogen does indeed drop more than 25 kilometers away and point to the government’s responsibility to reduce the total amount of nitrogen in Dutch nature reserves. The government’s approach to nitrogen is currently at a political stalemate. On Wednesday, there was a heated debate in the House of Representatives over whether or not to mandate the buyout of peak chargers, and whether nitrogen targets should be met in 2030 or 2035.
Prime Minister: good news
The decision is also a major boost for the firm, which already saw the construction exemption disappear in November – following which nitrogen emissions in construction were not taken into account for the application. of permits. As a result, the construction of nearly 100,000 homes has been significantly delayed. If the Aerius calculation model had become unusable due to the disappearance of the cutoff limit, this could have had significant consequences for the construction of houses and the construction of roads and bridges.
The Minister for Nitrogen, Christianne van der Wal (VVD), therefore qualifies the provisional decision as “good news”. But, according to the minister, “this does not mean that we are immediately off the hook”.
Environmental organizations mainly express their disappointment. MOB, one of the opponents in the ViA15 case, says he finds the Board’s decision “curious”. Pressure on the cabinet to tackle advanced chargers “has only increased”, says MOB chairman Johan Vollenbroek.
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Read also: the nitrogen judgment in the Porthos case blocks the firm’s great ambitions
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