Environmentalists fought gas drilling but left its enabling policy untouched.

Evidence

It has to be concluded that the small-fields policy has remarkably stood tall, despite the two occasional near-eruptions of the dormant controversy. The discussion apparently pops up every now and then in the ministerial echelons. In June 2004, for instance, it led to a ceiling for the Groningen field of an average production maximum for the next decade. But more importantly, despite the arguments against it, it has remained a dormant controversy. Not even the environmentalists have taken up the challenge to try and oppose to it. The small-fields policy provides the legitimacy for gas depletion in the Dutch Wadden Sea, which is a highly controversial exercise. These wetlands are not only hiding several small fields, it is also a nature reserve of international importance, which is – according to many – threatened by gas depletion. Nonetheless, the environmentalists have not touched the small-fields policy at all. — Georg Schreyögg and Jörg Sydow, The Hidden Dynamics of Path Dependence, 1083

Categorization

• SHARE: Perfect for someone who follows Dutch energy politics or Wadden Sea conservation — the paradox that the loudest fight skipped the rule that licensed it.
• SEED: Essay angle: why movements attack visible symptoms (a drilling site) and spare the technical rule that makes them legal.