We shouldn't forget that this whole energy crisis was the result of bad EU policy. Even though Putin's unjustified invasion of Ukraine was the spark that set the fire, EU's dependence on Russian natural gas was foreseeable and foreseen and warned about for years prior [1]:
> U.S. President Donald Trump launched a sharp public attack on Germany on Wednesday for supporting a Baltic Sea gas pipeline deal with Russia, saying Berlin had become “a captive to Russia” and he criticized it for failing to raise defense spending more.
But it didn't start there [2]:
> U.S. President Barack Obama told the European Union on Wednesday it cannot rely on the United States alone to reduce its dependency on Russian energy, as relations with Moscow chill over its seizure of Crimea from Ukraine.
The US foresaw and planned for the rise in demand for LNG, something Europe did not do [3]:
> The last time the United States was a net exporter of natural gas was in 1957, when Dwight Eisenhower was president. That should change in 2018 when the country is expected to become the world’s third-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
It went so far as Germany building an LNG terminal to mollify the US [4]:
> Germany will chose where to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal by the end of 2018 as a gesture to the United States which wants to ship more gas to Europe, the economy minister said on Tuesday.
And now Europe complains about the price they have to pay for LNG [5].
Don't lose sight of the fact that the entire European energy crisis is the result of poor strategic planning, avoidable dependence on Russian energy and poor policy.
I'm glad there's been a heat wave to alleviate winter-related heat issues. The UK, for example, has "warm hubs" [6] for people who literally cannot afford to heat their home.
Remember too that passing on those high energy costs to customers is also a policy choice by the various governments.
Never mind US; Russia has been openly using gas supply as a geopolitical pressure tool - at first, against Ukraine - since 2005. And opposition / anti-war folk in Russia have been talking about the insanity that is the European energy policy and its Russia dependence and its likely long-term consequences since at least 2008, after the war with Georgia (some were at it even longer, since Nord Stream became a thing). There were ample warnings all around for those willing to listen.
> U.S. President Donald Trump launched a sharp public attack on Germany on Wednesday for supporting a Baltic Sea gas pipeline deal with Russia, saying Berlin had become “a captive to Russia” and he criticized it for failing to raise defense spending more.
But it didn't start there [2]:
> U.S. President Barack Obama told the European Union on Wednesday it cannot rely on the United States alone to reduce its dependency on Russian energy, as relations with Moscow chill over its seizure of Crimea from Ukraine.
The US foresaw and planned for the rise in demand for LNG, something Europe did not do [3]:
> The last time the United States was a net exporter of natural gas was in 1957, when Dwight Eisenhower was president. That should change in 2018 when the country is expected to become the world’s third-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
It went so far as Germany building an LNG terminal to mollify the US [4]:
> Germany will chose where to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal by the end of 2018 as a gesture to the United States which wants to ship more gas to Europe, the economy minister said on Tuesday.
And now Europe complains about the price they have to pay for LNG [5].
Don't lose sight of the fact that the entire European energy crisis is the result of poor strategic planning, avoidable dependence on Russian energy and poor policy.
I'm glad there's been a heat wave to alleviate winter-related heat issues. The UK, for example, has "warm hubs" [6] for people who literally cannot afford to heat their home.
Remember too that passing on those high energy costs to customers is also a policy choice by the various governments.
[1]:https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nato-summit-pipeline/trum...
[2]: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-eu-summit/obama-tells...
[3]: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-natgas-lng-analysis/a...
[4]: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-energy-usa-russia/germ...
[5]: https://www.politico.eu/article/cheap-us-gas-cost-fortune-eu...
[6]: https://www.wrccrural.org.uk/services/wrcc-warm-hubs/what-ar...