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Slow down: Dutch cut max speed limit to rein in pollution

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The Dutch government is lowering the top speed limit on highways in a bid to put the brakes on emissions. (File photo/CTV)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The Dutch government is lowering the top speed limit on highways in a bid to put the brakes on emissions of the pollutant nitrogen oxide.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced Wednesday that the maximum speed limit will be cut from 130 kilometres per hour to 100 km/h (81-62 miles per hour) on many of the country's highways.

It was a climbdown for Rutte, whose conservative party is known as the "vroom vroom" party because of its support of motorists.

Rutte says he is "unbelievably unhappy that the 130 is disappearing."

The measure follows a Dutch Supreme Court decision in May that said the government's rules for granting permits to projects that emit nitrogen oxide breach European Union environmental law.

That led to a freeze on permits for many construction projects.