According to all kinds of polls, nitrogen is no longer a big deal for the voter who will be in the voting booth next Wednesday. Strictly speaking, that may be true, although it seems disappointing to many people in rural areas. However, the observation does not have to be taken at face value. After all, nitrogen now stands for much more, whatever moves the voter. It has become synonymous with the daily absurdities that ordinary entrepreneurs and citizens have to deal with in their dealings with governments.
Despite all kinds of protests, procedures at institutions are becoming increasingly complicated, including for civil servants themselves. The province of Gelderland's intention to recruit 200 extra civil servants to help municipalities get through the administrative burden more quickly is indicative. Apparently that is easier than using fewer protocols, creating shorter (digital) forms and creating clearer accompanying texts. Society is stuck in millimeters.
Pretest beats millimeter
Millimeters, which all kinds of action groups can often do very well with. Not always anyway. This week the court gave Central Netherlands MOB uneven in a case against the province of Flevoland and two PAS reporters. MOB argued in one case that a Flevoland poultry farmer should not obtain a permit because the company could cause 0,22 mol (too much) deposition on 0,08 hectares of nature in the Bird Directive area of the Rhine Branches (more than 20 kilometers away), plus 0,07 mol on an equally large Birds Directive area. Fortunately for the poultry farmer, a good 'preliminary test' had been carried out and MOB's arguments were refuted. That's how it went with the dairy farmer.
However, it is very precise. The critical deposition value (KDW) for nature reserves has been set at 2017 mol since 0,05, thanks to an official exercise at the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality. Recently released WOO documents provide a nice insight into how that happened. The German standard (which is much more flexible) was also discussed, but there was official resistance to it. Since then, partly with the help of Aerius, it has been very easy to take Dutch livestock companies to court for possible damage to nature.
Fly administratively clean
Another problem with livestock farms is that they are often 'peak emitters', which emit from one fixed location and with the help of calculation programs the emissions to the environment can then be mapped out. Although research by the University of Amsterdam has provided a lot of nuance for the Mesdag Fund. Aviation, on the other hand, is a so-called 'diffuse emitter', because aircraft move and leave their traces in the entire 'blanket' of air pollution above our heads. Moreover, emissions from aircraft higher than about 900 meters do not count towards pollution. This is of course an administrative trick, but there are international agreements about this and the judge accepts that. So aviation thinks it is clean and that 60% of all nitrogen pollution comes from agriculture.
Chew and Tjeerd's whip
However, Schiphol also had a problem when it turned out that it did not have a nature permit and it turned out that it was still emitting too much nitrogen. Only 0,1%, if the correct reference year was used. The entire cabinet was working on it in the fall of 2021: Rutte, Kaag, Hoekstra, Schouten. How should that be? Deputy Prime Minister Kaag did not understand it, sighed a Finance official, who had to explain to her again and again 'why 0,1% too much deposition had to cause so much hassle' (Quote from a WOO document). If she had gone to fellow party member Tjeerd de Groot, she would have understood immediately. For years, the KDW of 0,05 mol was the whip with which De Groot in particular kept The Hague's nitrogen policy on the right track.
Entire companies for a little bit of rights
To help Schiphol (with the state as the main shareholder) out of trouble, a few million more or less was not considered. The cabinet was prepared to pay approximately €60 million to purchase the necessary nitrogen space for a permit, according to publicly released documents. Because Schiphol's emissions (and its aircraft) end up over a large part of the country, Schiphol also had to purchase emission space everywhere. Also because the emission space is very area-specific. This made the purchase of emission space financially very inefficient. Schiphol had to buy up entire farms spread across the country in order to acquire a small amount of emission rights everywhere. The surplus is for the nitrogen banks. As far as the outgoing cabinet is concerned, the nature permit for Schiphol has now been arranged. Ministers Harbers and Van der Wal recently arranged this, even though they were outgoing. This does not mean that all concerns for Schiphol are over, because various action groups have indicated that they do not accept this.
Few purchase awards
Not for Schiphol, but for the nitrogen plans of the entire cabinet, approximately 770 livestock farms throughout the country have so far registered for purchase, via the regular LBV scheme or the LBV-plus scheme (peak load loaders). However, the processing of applications is not yet running smoothly. Until this week only 18 applications promised. There is interest in termination, but the meager compensation for the often older buildings and inventory deters many people, it is said.
Desirable budget
Outgoing Nitrogen Minister Van der Wal will no longer be able to transfer the billions she has ready to farmers who are retiring. This makes her budget an attractive prize for the parties that will form after next week's elections. There is a bag of money that is difficult to find a use for and a new coalition will want new priorities. Much is still uncertain, but it does seem that the next cabinet will be of a different character than the current one, perhaps more right-wing. Certainly in terms of policy and, they indicate, the way of dealing with entrepreneurs and citizens will also change. Of course, practice will have to tell, but the resistance to much of what already exists is too great not to be tackled.