A large majority of the municipal council of Aa en Hunze wants the central government and mining companies to stay away from the soil under the municipality. New gas or salt extraction and the storage of nuclear waste or hydrogen are rejected by the council members.
Below and near the municipality, the Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij (NAM) and salt company Nedmag have been extracting natural gas and salt respectively for decades. Damage to homes, which residents attribute to these mining activities, is not always compensated.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Climate and Green Growth (KGG) focused on salt domes under the municipality as a suitable place for the storage of nuclear waste and hydrogen. Just like local politics, village interest groups are also very critical of this.
Municipal interests Aa and Hunze, the PvdA, GroenLinks, the CDA and the VVD want to get rid of ‘rumbling in the soil’ of the municipality completely. The parties want Minister Hermans (VVD) of KGG to no longer allow new gas and salt extraction and to refrain from storing nuclear waste and hydrogen in the salt domes.
Only opposition party D66 voted against the other parties’ proposal. Group leader Marita de Jong does not think it is fair to other places that Aa en Hunze says ‘no’ in principle.
“Do you think it should be done in Pieterburen or Hoogeveen? What would they think about that? Or should we stop using natural gas and nuclear energy completely? But what then,” the council member asks. Her plea does not lead the other parties to a different understanding.
The municipal council is not authorized to block mining activities. That is what the minister is about. The proposal is mainly a signal to The Hague that there is little support in local politics.
The parties do want to include a reservation. If new techniques make it possible in the future to safely extract mineral resources or store things underground, politicians will want to see whether activities can still take place.