The Porthos project may proceed. The Dutch Council of State decided that yesterday. According to the Council, the Economic Affairs and Climate, and Housing and Spatial Planning Ministries have demonstrated - based on independent data not part of the project - that eight nearby Natura 2000 areas will not be affected.
Initially, the ministries wanted to use a so-called construction exemption for the Porthos project. In an interim ruling last November, the Administrative Law Division ruled against that. That meant the ministries had to have the project's nitrogen assessed individually.
That has already been done during the Administrative Law Division proceedings. The objector, the Mobilisation for the Environment Cooperative (MOB), had, however, not yet been able to respond. It did so to the post-interlocutory ruling's assessment. According to them, this assessment falls short on several points, thus underestimating the project's nitrogen effects.
The Porthos plan schematic
Temporary and limited
In this case, the Administrative Law Division had to determine whether the Porthos project's nitrogen effects assessment could stand the test of criticism, which it does. The project will mean nitrogen emissions will rise - between 0.01 mol and 0.57 mol of nitrogen per hectare per year - in parts of the surrounding Natura 2000 areas. But that is temporary and limited.
Also, the ministries have shown that, based on objective data, these natural areas being "significantly affected" are ruled out in this case. And the nitrogen impact assessment was done using correct assumptions and at "the required depth." Nature conservation law requirements have, thus, been met.
No threshold value for future projects
MOB's fear that this would create a threshold value for future projects is unjustified. In the ruling, the Administrative Law Division emphasizes that each plan or project must do an ecological impact analysis. That must consider each Natura 2000 area's specific environmental characteristics and conditions, even if the increase is temporary and limited, as in this case.
Porthos project
The 'Porthos CO2 transport and storage' incorporation plan allows industrially-generated CO2 from Rotterdam's port region to be stored in empty gas fields under the North Sea. A CO2 transport pipeline will be constructed from the port area to the North Sea, and a compressor station will be built in Rotterdam.
The P18-A in the North Sea gas production platform will be converted into a CO2 storage platform. The Minister of Economic Affairs has granted permits for this. Among others, the Greenhouse horticulture sector has criticized the project, saying growers, too, can make good use of the CO2.