Green energies cannot liberate EU, which remains Russian natural gas junkie.
Showing support for peace initiatives to curb the Russia-Ukraine conflict quickly gets you labelled a Putin-appeaser here in Europe.
And just imagine the reaction you might risk getting if you called on ramping up more gas imports from Russia, where the energy is cheap and plentiful?
Incredibly, that’s what many European countries have been doing lately: importing lots of gas from Russia to meet their appetite for cheap, reliable and efficient energy.
Germany’s DPA news agency reports, citing a study by think tank Bruegel: “For the first time in almost two years, the countries of the European Union imported more natural gas from Russia than from the United States in a single quarter.”
From April to June this year, the EU purchased more than 12.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia, compared to 12.3 billion from the USA, the think tank reports. Currently Norway delivers the most gas to the EU.
Though Germany no longer purchases gas from Russia, Russia has risen to second place among suppliers across the EU.
Foreign affairs expert Norbert Röttgen of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has called for an EU-wide ban on imports of Russian gas. “The Europeans are supporting Ukraine with billions and at the same time paying billions into Putin’s war chest – that is neither responsible, rational nor credible,” said Röttgen.
The policy contradiction illustrates just how desperate the EU is for low-cost energy, and how EU countries don’t always dance to the music they like to play.
Meanwhile other Europeans are calling for a complete ban of the Russian energy: “Importing Russian gas equals supporting the Russian war economy and its war on Ukraine,” says Ville Niinistö, a green Finnish MEP. “We must continue to push for a total ban of Russian gas to EU markets and to limit its markets elsewhere globally as much as possible,” he told Euractiv.
FDP energy policy spokesman, Michael Kruse, on the other hand, sees the Russian imports as a source of tax revenue, and is calling for “a surcharge” on the price of Russian import gas, which could be used to help finance weapons deliveries to Ukraine. In other words, German consumers should be forced to foot the war bills by paying more for energy that is already expensive.
In August, Austria made a commitment to “phase out Russian natural gas supplies by 2027”, but that commitment was “non-binding.” Europe has obviously realized that even though it is at war with Russia, the continent still has to rely on Russia to meet its energy needs.
All that green energy hasn’t done anything – except make energy and living far more expensive, and EU citizens poorer. It’s Games Without Frontiers.
“In August, Austria made a commitment to “phase out Russian natural gas supplies by 2027”, but that commitment was “non-binding.” Europe has obviously realized that even though it is at war with Russia, the continent still has to rely on Russia to meet its energy needs.
All that green energy hasn’t done anything – except make energy and living far more expensive, and EU citizens poorer. It’s Games Without Frontiers. ”
The winter is coming thus the question is how to “sell” this to the public.
As we have seen in Germany a few days ago, the public has made up his/het mind.
I heard an European Commission member saying somethig like “We wonder how we will pass next winter.”
Here we are :
– that’s the tragic result of decades of green ideology and ideologically distorted energy market by clueless policy makers where the most expensive and least reliable means of energy production are subsidised to the detriment of the best, which then brings to more coal and gaz consumption (renewables do not work) and high energy costs (idiotic european energy market prices).
Bravo !
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