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You Have No Idea How Bad Europe’s Energy Crisis Is
Foreign Policy.com ^ | 8/26/22 | Christina Lu,

Posted on 08/29/2022 4:35:31 PM PDT by EBH

Natural gas prices are 10 times the usual—upending industries, angering consumers, and panicking politicians.

If most of the world is struggling with higher energy prices, Europe is being stretched on the rack, forcing European leaders to improvise bailout plans and emergency measures to spare consumers from damaging economic pain come winter.

The biggest problem is spiking natural gas prices, which have been wreaking havoc across the continent, turbocharging inflation, hamstringing industries, and making ordinary people shudder when they get their power bills in the mail. European natural gas prices are now around 10 times higher than they were on average over the last decade and about 10 times pricier than in the United States. Alex Munton, an expert on global gas markets at Rapidan Energy Group, a consultancy, said European natural gas is so expensive it’s like paying $500 for a barrel of oil. And these are the good months.

“Things are [at] a crisis point,” said Munton. “We have astronomic gas prices, and we’re still a few months away from when gas demand really peaks during the winter. There’s genuine uncertainty whether there will be sufficient gas to meet demand throughout the winter.”

The gas problem is largely due to Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has disrupted exports of Russian gas to Europe and raised prices everywhere else. But it’s not just the war: Alternative supplies of gas are expensive, climate change has drained rivers so much that many of Europe’s nuclear plants are offline, and there’s been more than a decade of confusion among European policymakers about how to build shock absorbers into the system. Power prices in both Germany and France reached record levels this week (again), a reflection of the continent’s ever-deepening power emergency. As nations buckle under the economic pressures,

(Excerpt) Read more at foreignpolicy.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: energy; europe; europeisscrewed; facinglongcoldwinter; idea; no; noidea; winter; youhavenoidea
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Desperate measures are being taken all across the continent.

If these nations buckle/collapse under these pressures or economies are so intertwined, we will feel it here too.

1 posted on 08/29/2022 4:35:31 PM PDT by EBH
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To: EBH

” climate change has drained rivers so much that many of Europe’s nuclear plants are offline, ‘ Nonsense.


2 posted on 08/29/2022 4:37:18 PM PDT by Fungi
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To: EBH

I guess I’d have to live there during the coming winter. I have friends living there and I’ll soon find out.


3 posted on 08/29/2022 4:38:38 PM PDT by SkyDancer ( I make airplanes fly, what's your super power?)
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To: EBH

“ The gas problem is largely due to Russia’s war in Ukraine, ”

The gas problem is largely due to the stupidity, corruption and evilness of Europe’s “leaders”. There, reads much more accurately.


4 posted on 08/29/2022 4:38:39 PM PDT by GrumpyOldGuy
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To: Fungi

I blame socialism, not fake climate change, for Europe’s energy ‘crisis’.


5 posted on 08/29/2022 4:38:51 PM PDT by Jane Long (What we were told was a “conspiracy theory” in 2020 is now fact. 🙏🏻 Ps 33:12)
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To: Fungi

We’re not there to help.


6 posted on 08/29/2022 4:38:54 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: EBH

But no mean tweets, so there’s that.


7 posted on 08/29/2022 4:39:05 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (We are already in a revolutionary period, and the Rule of Law means nothing. )
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To: Fungi

Starve people of gas, blame people for climate change... Not nonsense at all if you are a piece of sht Obamaite liberal


8 posted on 08/29/2022 4:39:19 PM PDT by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security in hates:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
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To: EBH

Lost me at “ climate change has drained rivers”

crappy reporting eminates everywhere


9 posted on 08/29/2022 4:39:50 PM PDT by George from New England
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To: EBH

We’ll find out when we see thousands on people marching around with torches and pitchforks looking for politicians


10 posted on 08/29/2022 4:40:57 PM PDT by butlerweave
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To: EBH

Hmmm... Europe fought economically pushing disastrous bolshevism in Russia and Germany (which turned out Nazi), and now it is Europe which risks going Bolshevik...


11 posted on 08/29/2022 4:41:06 PM PDT by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security in hates:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
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To: George from New England

My great grand parents left Europe 130 years ago because it was a Shithole then. Glad to see that after all these years their opinion is still accurate.


12 posted on 08/29/2022 4:42:53 PM PDT by OHPatriot (Si vis pacem, para bellum)
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To: butlerweave

There was a reported today on the radio saying they are preparing for that exact circumstance.


13 posted on 08/29/2022 4:44:24 PM PDT by EBH ( 1776-2021 May God Save Us.)
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To: EBH
The gas problem is largely due to Russia’s war in Ukraine,

No, the problem is largely due to going "green" and throwing away their means to produce the gas needed to stay warm.

But hey, they had a few good years with the in-crowd, huh?

14 posted on 08/29/2022 4:44:29 PM PDT by libertylover (Our biggest problem, BY FAR, is that almost all of big media is agenda-driven, not-truth driven.)
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To: EBH

Nothing about the coming starvation, all because the elites want starvation to happen? Same thing as the lack of energy. The elites want a lack of energy, and shazam, there is a lack of energy. That is what happens when countries shut down power plants, start wars they cannot fight and win, and replace the power plants with, well nothing.

Same as the starvation situation they are creating. Reducing all agriculture by 30-70% for a nonsense made up reason and act surprised 100s of millions if not billions starve to death. Stalin and Mao would blush at the scale and audacity of today’s oligarchs.


15 posted on 08/29/2022 4:46:29 PM PDT by rigelkentaurus
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To: EBH

climate change has drained rivers so much that many of Europe’s nuclear plants are offline,

==
climate change forced them to shut down nuclear plants?

i think i see the root of the problem


16 posted on 08/29/2022 4:46:31 PM PDT by joshua c (to disrupt the system, we must disrupt our lives)
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To: George from New England

I thought ‘climate change’ was causing great floods..


17 posted on 08/29/2022 4:46:58 PM PDT by neverevergiveup
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To: Fungi

> ” climate change has drained rivers so much that many of Europe’s nuclear plants are offline, ‘ <

I caught that too. And it shows that the elite will have learned nothing from this latest crisis. Europe will muddle through the upcoming winter with much pain and confusion. Then they will go right back to fighting non-existent Climate Change, making the winter of 2023-2024 even worse.

But at least Al Gore and Greta Thunberg will be happy. I guess that’s all that really matters.


18 posted on 08/29/2022 4:47:49 PM PDT by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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To: EBH

Europe has been spending twenty years creating this problem. The war with Russia has nothing to do with it.


19 posted on 08/29/2022 4:47:55 PM PDT by Jonty30 (Some men want tod watch the world burn. It is they that want you to buy an electric car.)
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To: Fungi

I also noticed that. They also blame Russia’s war in Ukraine but leave out the west’s sanctions on Russia as having any responsibility.

We know that the nuke plants were shut down on purpose for political reasons quite some time ago, not because there was no water due to idiotic climate change.

This is some truth with some omissions of truth.


20 posted on 08/29/2022 4:48:36 PM PDT by dforest
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