MPs studying extra pollution from higher 130 km/h speed limits

A majority of the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, wants a new study into extra pollution that may be caused by increasing the speed limit on highways to 130 kilometers per hour, NOS reports. The D66 pushed the proposal for a new study by the RIVM after Milieudefensie, the Dutch Friends of the Earth, announced that increasing the speed limits will mean a 81 percent chance that pollution standards will be exceeded. The D66 feels that this calculation is causing unnecessary unrest, that a second opinion by the RIVM could solve. State Secretary Sharon Dijksma of Infrastructure and Environment told the Kamer last week that another study is unnecessary. She pointed out that measurements of actual emissions will be made every year, and if the standards are in danger of being exceeded, the increase will reversed. The Kamer decided that these assurances were not enough and therefore voted for another study.