Posted on 06/22/2022 10:50:05 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
No king, no parliament, no president, no legislature can repeal the law of unintended consequence. Russia’s war with Ukraine, and the cut-off of oil and natural gas to Western Europe, have brought coal back to power plant furnaces across Europe. This week, the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria all moved to reignite coal power. Gone are environmental regulations and restrictions. For example, the Netherlands had previously limited coal to only one-third of its full capacity.
The party of green, so closely aligned with the left in the United States, may see a defeat on both fronts. Right now it looks likely Ukraine will end its war smaller and poorer despite the $50 billion being poured into its defense efforts by armchair militarists in Congress and the White House. The return of coal is a sign that another war is being lost: the Green New Dealers’ war on fossil fuels. Failure to bring about a peaceful settlement in Ukraine by the Biden Administration means the return of coal power to Western Europe.
Energy is the key to victory in war and prosperity in peace. One thinks of the UK in World War II and the Bevin boys. Beginning in 1943, 10% of all draftees between 18 and 25 were not sent to the front, but to the coal mines. Those shutting down domestic U.S. energy production in favor of foreign imports, take note: countries without their own energy supply are beholden to the countries that provide them with energy.
Gazprom’s Nordstream Pipeline cut the flow of natural gas to Germany last week. After reducing its natural gas reliance on Russia by 64% since the start of the war, the largest economy in Europe has yet to take up the slack in its energy shortfall.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
According to the World Coal Association , “37% of the world’s electricity and over 70% of the world steel is produced using coal.” The Germans claim their plan to close all coal power plants by 2030 is still feasible. It is unclear if the Netherlands is still on board with that shutdown date.
How dare you!
Yeah, that didn't happen.
Yep. They’re still buying oil big time either directly or indirectly.
And now they’re going to use coal. Isn’t that worse than Russian gas according to them?
I mean, what happened to all the talk from the green enviros in Europe that climate change was the greatest threat to mankind?
Is Gretta on life support?
It was all about rich peoples whimsies. When it all became real, they got real. Which is what I’ve been telling you guys for months.
Which should tell you all you need to know about how much real leverage Russia has. Russia has been depending on the fantasy life of western elites. That’s a very weak basis for economic blackmail. Europe is getting religion and calling Russia’s bluff. They can take their gas and stuff it up their own backsides.
Oil (petroleum) is very different from nat gas, or piped nat gas.
There is no problem, in the case of petroleum, with a single source, as petroleum feeds, effectively, a global commodity pool.
The proper solution for Russia is isolation. They should be induced into being a “hermit kingdom” until they resolve their cultural deficiencies. They are not fit company.
“Religion” and hypocrisy aren’t supposed to mix.
And them not really getting religion is borne out by them buying Russian oil indirectly from others who buy Russian oil, like India.
The Euroweenies are still losers.
She uses up perfectly good oxygen, that someone else needs.
And according to the climate change alarmists, coal is as bad as it gets, yet the Europeans are turning to that.
And they brought it all upon themselves being Biden’s lapdogs.
Yes, she does.
LOL
How about, she uses up perfectly good oxygen a normal level
headed human being should have, as a top priority?
What I’d like to know is who is going to do the mining in Germany?
Do any young Germans have it in mind to pick up a shovel and go into a coal mine?
Biden had nothing to do with it. This all was in process for decades. It was a collective failure by the powers that be, both in Europe and the US. It was an indulgence of elitist fantasies over a generation.
Its never a good idea to put names and faces to this sort of thing, because it is fundamentally false. This is the result of the state of mind and behavior of very large groups of people.
“Europe is getting religion and calling Russia’s bluff.”
You are very optimistic. The greens have Europe and the US by the throat. They may allow us to breathe for a little while to keep their guys in power. But the choking will resume shortly after that.
“get religion” is an idiom, not literal.
Petroleum is a commodity, effectively a global pool. If you want to buy it you buy from the pool. What you don’t buy someone else will, if the overall supply is more or less=overall demand. You cannot exclude petroleum from the pool unless you blockade the producers ports.
I have hopes that this will change somewhat.
The powers that be are getting serious pushback at the moment.
Bill Maher was right: get rid of a fossil fuel, and you’ll go back to a dirtier fossil fuel. Soon to come to the US.
Not true on both counts because firstly, China and India have made up the shortfall caused by the Europeans' boycotts and the exponentially rising price of oil and gas due to the leftist/globalist filth's attempts to protect their money laundering mecca (Ukraine) by declaring a proxy war against Russia has increased the strength of the ruble and filled Russia's coffers with cash (record year so far).
Secondly, a few days ago, globalist filthbag (and head of the European Union) Ursula von der Leyen made clear that Europe would absolutely not be abandoning its idiotic, greenie policy of a fossil fuel-free Europe within a few years.
These leftist/globalist scumbags are intent on their Great Reset and a linchpin of that vile enterprise is forcing people off fossil fuelsthereby forcing them to abandon their personal modes of transportation, forcing them out of their homes (unless they're willing to freeze or roast to death in them) and herding them into Soviet-style apartments where they will "own nothing and be happy."
“China and India have made up the shortfall caused by the Europeans’ boycotts”
Petroleum, not nat gas. Petroleum is a global commodity. Nat gas via pipeline isn’t. Think of what you are saying. To get nat gas from, say, the Urengoy Basin and the others near it, which supplies the European market, to China, one would have to massively extend the pipeline system, by thousands of miles. China gets Russian natural gas from an entirely different region.
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