"The Dutch Senate on Tuesday approved a law to permanently close the #Groningen gas field, following the government's promise that production will never be resumed to limit seismic risks in the region.
"Gas profits have delivered an estimated 363 billion euros ($385 billion) to the Dutch treasury since production started in the 1960s, while #Shell and #Exxon's profit from #Groningen was around 66 billion euros during that period."
Gas brought the Dutch a higher living standard, financed the Delta Works coastal storm barrier, and made the #Netherlands a poster child for Dutch disease (unlike Norway, they spent it all).
But as the gas bubble underneath #Groningen was depleted, the ground subsided, causing earthquakes that cracked brick homes.
In case you thought colonialism is only done to people in other countries: the government in The Hague ignored the residents' pleas for help, for decades. There was 2800 billion cubic meters of gas in that field, and the guilders (and then the euros) proved too much of a temptation.
The number and severity of the earthquakes, and the shouting of the people who lost their homes, increased until they became impossible to ignore. The gas field turned, this article says, from a cow you could milk into a dossier that only gave you a headache.
Four Rutte governments waffled.
Finally, and to his undying credit, Hans Vijlbrief (D66) put his foot down. Both chambers of parliament passed the law, the king signed it, and as of today the gas field is closed.
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