Posted on 12/14/2025 7:48:46 PM PST by SeekAndFind
While Europe freezes under net-zero dogma, Norway drills, profits, and keeps the lights on—funding EV virtue with oil and gas while the EU chooses ideology over arithmetic.
While the rest of Europe shivers under the self-imposed austerity of net zero mandates, Norway in the frozen north is keeping the lights on and the bank vaults full as it avoids the “green” ideological quicksand that has defined the continent’s energy policy.
Despite pressures to decarbonize, Norway has increased efforts to exploit oil and natural gas reserves. The crown jewel of this fossil fuel renaissance is the Johan Castberg field. Located in the Barents Sea, 100 kilometers north of the 20-year-old Snøhvit natural gas field, Johan Castberg is expected to be a beast of a producer—450 million–650 million barrels over 30 years, with a peak daily capacity of 220,000 barrels.
And the investments don’t stop there. The Norwegian government—ignoring the wailing of the United Nations—has initiated plans for its 26th round of oil and gas licensing. Targeted will be “frontier areas”—little-explored regions that can reward high risk with massive returns. While the U.K. suffocates its North Sea industry with windfall taxes and regulatory hostility, Norway is effectively saying, “If you won’t drill, we will.”
Companies operating on the Norwegian continental shelf plan to pour about $25 billion into oil and natural gas projects in 2026. Almost $2 billion higher than a previous estimate because of rising development costs, the commitment signals determination to keep production climbing.
Since autumn 2024, the price of ongoing development has swelled by 17%, which is consistent with a rising trajectory that had Norway overtake Russia in 2022 as Europe’s principal supplier of natural gas.
Despite the country’s embrace of fossil fuels, “greens” enthusiasts often point to Norwegians’ widespread adoption of electric vehicles as a model for other countries. However, as is often the case, the pretense of a “green” utopia is promoted through a deception.
The gleaming EVs filling the streets of Oslo are subsidized by the government’s oil revenue.
The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund—known as the Government Pension Fund Global—is the largest of its kind in the world. As of November, its assets were valued at over $2 trillion. On paper, that is $340,000 for every Norwegian.
It is a delicious irony that the climate activists’ favorite “model” nation is funded by the very substance they despise. Every time Norwegians plug in an EV, they are effectively accepting a handout from drillers at Johan Castberg. The “green” lifestyle is a luxury purchased with petrodollars.
Norway is not without its problems. The country’s substantial electricity exports to the EU become toxic, as the continent uses Norway as a crutch to compensate for the failure of its own wind and solar investments.
Norwegian households, accustomed to decades of low energy prices from abundant hydropower, have been adversely affected by flexible pricing contracts that link their electricity costs to the high prices of European markets. Oslo—along with Stockholm and Helsinki—is tiring of mainland Europe treating the Nordic grid as a dumping ground for the costs of the EU’s star-crossed love affair with so-called renewable energy.
Nonetheless, Norway is better off than European Union countries. Not being a member of the EU, Norway has been able to maintain energy sovereignty and stay out of the net zero suicide pact gripping EU capitals.
Being free of the European Union’s authoritarian energy directives has turned into the greatest blessing Norway never asked for. While the EU suffers through “managed decline” in the name of climate salvation, Norway stands apart—enjoying relative wealth and secure energy supplies while watching the spectacle of a continent that chose ideology over arithmetic.
Among the foreign countries in which Gregory Wrightstone’s “Inconvenient Facts: The science that Al Gore doesn’t want you to know” received wide distribution was Norway. (A Norwegian language version is available.)
Europe built its “green” cathedral on the shifting sands of a cult. Norway built its future on rocks that happen to float in black gold.
***
Vijay Jayaraj is a Science and Research Associate at the CO2 Coalition, Fairfax, Virginia. He holds an M.S. in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia and a postgraduate degree in energy management from Robert Gordon University, both in the U.K., and a bachelor’s in engineering from Anna University, India.
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At least be honest, I know asking a lot from a journalist...
Norway uses virtually zero gas or oil for electricity generation. Hydro is 89.9% wind is 9.2%, gas is 0.2% so not even a rounding error.
Fun fact Norway heats with electric too, why they have cheap Hydro and the capacity to build much more all up and down their thousands of miles of deep fjord valleys each one of them has a river down the center. Norway is Europe’s battery all that water uphill and behind dams is instant on potential energy. There is no less than 4 HVDC cables that are bidirectional so you can pull Hydro power or send power from the EU and hold the water back for later ,Norway also is doing pump back Hydro where they again take EU power and pump water back uphill. It’s genius.
https://www.iea.org/countries/norway/electricity
Norway also has GREAT hydro-electric from their mountain lakes and reservoirs. So much so that many countries in Europe buy that ‘green’ power to them, in order to help them ‘meet their goals’.
...but that leads to a recent problem - the DRAINING of those lakes and reservoirs, and so Norway has told the rest of Europe to find green power somewhere else, such as the 12 nuclear plants that the German Government blew up.
The fad following insanity of Western politicians and “Social” leaders is leading to cultural suicide and it’s coming quickly.
the 12 nuclear plants that the German Government blew up.“
Idiots
Norway is not draining lakes they are pumping water back up hill to store power they buy from the EU via HVDC cables then sell it back for profit or use it to make aluminum.
Norway is the Kings of Hydro power. They habe enormous resources. Every fjord has a river running down the center to sea level and thousands of feet of elevation change over every short distances this is the best set up for Hydro power in all of Europe and most of the world too. Only the Tibetan plateau has more hydro potential.
Norway is Europe’s battery they can hold water back or pump it up hill with 85+% round trip efficiency. Norway sells its oil and gas to fund its social state, most new car in Norway are EVs they have plenty of hydro power to.charge them and most citizens live in Oslo anyways so they are hooked up to the HVAC grid not rural.
The gas the EU was buying from Russia? Norway ramped up their gas production, to where they have replaced the missing Russian gas. They use hydropower electricity, to where their use of EVs is Justified!
90% of new car sales are EVs there.
“Norway is not draining lakes they are pumping water back up hill to store power they buy from the EU via HVDC cables then sell it back for profit or use it to make aluminum.”
I see - Norway drains their lakes to send power to Europe and then buys the power back from Europe for pumped storage. Thanks, that makes sense.
(the idiocy of Europeans has no bounds)
Norway gets close to 90% of its electricity from hydro power and THAT is why it is able to avoid the green - wind and solar - scams. Electricity is also the main source for heating. And EVS (with so much abundant hydro power electricity) are now the top sellers in Norway. What does Norway do with most of the gas and oil it produces? They export most of it.
ARTICLES
1- A New Job For Wave Energy: Water Desalination
CleanTechnica
May 15, 2025
https://cleantechnica.com/2025/05/15/a-new-job-for-wave-energy-water-desalination/
“The Norwegian startup Ocean Oasis is among the wave energy innovators exploring the offshore desalination angle. I had a chance to learn more about the company’s business plan at a press briefing while reporting for CleanTechnica from Oslo this week.*
Ocean Oasis deploys a large, boxy-shaped, buoy-type design. Buoys are a longtime feature of offshore infrastructure, floating on the surface of the water and bobbing up and down with the motion of the waves. That kinetic energy can be captured by an interior device underneath the surface that swings along with the buoy as well.
Offshore wind turbines and floating offshore solar arrays could be deployed to power offshore desalination plants, but wave energy has the advantage of direct application to reverse osmosis, without inserting an electricity generation step in between.
At the briefing, Christian Dubrau, the Head of Finance for Ocean Oasis, also pointed out that the buoy approach has a much smaller footprint than a solar array. Because the system has a low profile, it also does not raise the aesthetic issues confronted by offshore wind developers. Concerns over risks to avian traffic are also mitigated by the low silhouette.” (Excerpt)
2- How to Efficiently Manage Energy Consumption in Desalination Plants
Live to Plant
March 24, 2025
https://livetoplant.com/how-to-efficiently-manage-energy-consumption-in-desalination-plants/
“Desalination plants primarily utilize two technologies: reverse osmosis (RO) and thermal distillation methods (like multi-stage flash distillation or multi-effect distillation). Each method consumes a significant amount of energy, which is largely derived from electricity or thermal sources:
REVERSE OSMOSIS: This method uses high-pressure pumps to force seawater through semi-permeable membranes. It accounts for approximately 60-70% of the total energy consumption in desalination plants.
THERMAL DISTILLATION: This method relies on heating seawater to create steam, which is then condensed into fresh water. Thermal processes are typically less energy-efficient than RO and can account for up to 90% of the total operational costs.” (Excerpt)
DOH!
I worked in Norway for several years in late seventies and early 80s. Until 1983 when the oilfield collapsed due the fact we found to much oil. Prior I worked world wide just looking for oil, it was great.
Norway is an odd nation very much different than the rest of Europe. Most of their electricity comes from hydro power of which they are blessed and also natural gas of which they are blessed in the extreme. Norway just uses a combination which insures efficiency for the lowest price to the customer.
Norway is very capitalistic, they encourage this but at the same time taxes their citizens greatly to provide all with almost a welfare state. Their tax structure is kind to business as it is the source of income for the state. Norway is an odd state that socialism almost got right but underlying this success is huge natural resources of oil and gas and the wisdom to use it correctly. Without this underlying prosperity it has it would fail as a almost socialist state.
Osa Rott was beautiful.
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