Tag Archives: European energy crisis

Europe, More Than Putin, Must Shoulder the Blame for the Energy Crisis, by Jonathan Cook

Posted on September 15, 2022 | 1 comment

Europeans and Ukrainians will be the primary victims of the Ukraine-Russia War. From Jonathan Cook at antiwar.com:

The same arrogant, self-righteous posturing from the West that fueled the Ukraine war is now plunging Europe into recession

Outraged western leaders are threatening a price cap on imports of Russian natural gas after Moscow cut supplies to Europe this month, deepening an already dire energy and cost-of-living crisis. In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Europe will “freeze” this winter unless there is a change of tack.

In this back-and-forth, the West keeps stepping up the rhetoric. Putin is accused of using a mix of blackmail and economic terror against Europe. His actions supposedly prove once more that he is a monster who cannot be negotiated with, and a threat to world peace.

Denying fuel to Europe as winter approaches, in a bid to weaken the resolve of European states to support Kyiv and alienate European publics from their leaders, is Putin’s opening gambit in a plot to expand his territorial ambitions from Ukraine to the rest of Europe.

Or so runs the all-too-familiar narrative shared by western politicians and media.

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Posted in Business, Economics, Economy, Energy, Geopolitics, Governments, War

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Europe Is Facing Energy Disaster And It’s Going To Bleed Over Into The US, by Brandon Smith

Posted on September 12, 2022 | Leave a comment

Europe’s woes will force up the price of energy, which will affect the U.S. as well. From Brandon Smith at alt-market.us:

This article was written by Brandon Smith and originally published at Birch Gold Group

Though the situation is ever changing, currently the Russian government has announced an official shutdown of ALL natural gas exports to Europe through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and plans to maintain the shutdown until the EU ends its economic sanctions over the war in Ukraine. This means that around 40% of Europe’s energy resources are now gone, with supply chain issues surrounding the other 60% and prices skyrocketing for households and businesses.

Back in March in an article titled ‘The Biggest Lies (So Far) Surrounding Russia And Ukraine’ I noted that:

“…There’s something else the media does not talk about much, which is Europe’s reliance on Russian oil and natural gas. If you want to see actual price inflation caused by Russia, let the EU ban Russian oil imports, or watch as Putin cuts off the supply. Europe is dependent on Russian oil and gas for about 40% of overall energy production. They cannot even survive a single year without it. If Russia retaliated and blocked energy exports to Europe, the the EU would have to siphon oil from many other countries, reducing global supply dramatically. This would cause gas prices to explode to double or even triple current levels.”

Back in April of this year in my article ‘The Media Is Ignoring These Two Events Which Could Cause Economic Collapse’ I predicted that:

“…The Russian economy is not about to fold anytime soon, and now the EU, which is reliant on Russian oil and gas exports for 40% of their energy needs, is about to face economic doom unless they submit to paying for energy in rubles (which they won’t) or find a replacement source for gas and oil (which is impossible). Furthermore, with Europe on the global market looking for alternative oil sources, a big chunk of the oil market will be rerouted.

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Europe’s Energy Crisis Was Created by Political Interventionism, by Daniel Lacalle

Posted on September 5, 2022 | Leave a comment

Markets work extraordinarily well if you let them. From Daniel Lacalle at dlacalle.com:

An energy policy that bans investment in some technologies based on ideological views and ignores security of supply is doomed to a strepitous failure.

The energy crisis in the European Union was not created by market failures or lack of alternatives. It was created by political nudging and imposition.

Renewable energies are a positive force within a balanced energy mix, not on their own, due to the volatile and intermittent nature of the technology. Politicians have imposed an unstable energy mix banning base technologies that work almost 100% of the time and this has made prices soar for consumers and threatened security of supply.

This week, Ursula Von Der Leyen, President of the European Commission, gave two messages that have grabbed many headlines. First, she announced a strong intervention in the electricity market, and then she stated at the Baltic Sea Energy Security Summit the proposal to increase renewables to 45% of the total generation mix by 2030. She considers that this is not an energy crisis but “a fossil fuel crisis.”

However, Ms Von Der Leyen’s messages have two problems. Europe’s energy crisis is due to intervention at a massive scale. Furthermore, massively increasing renewables does not eliminate the risk of dependence on Russia or other commodity suppliers.

The European electricity market is probably the most intervened in the world. More intervention is not going to solve the problems created by a political design that has made most countries’ energy mix expensive, volatile, and intermittent.

Ideology is a bad partner in energy.

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“Europe On The Brink:” 70,000 Czech Protesters Flood Prague Over Energy Crisis, by Tyler Durden

Posted on September 4, 2022 | 1 comment

As sure as night follows day, chaos and protest are going to follow the energy failures hitting Europe. They will hit even harder when winter arrives. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

More than 70,000 Czechs are protesting in Prague, the capital, demanding the ruling coalition take a neutral stance on the Ukraine war to ensure energy supplies from Russia aren’t cut off ahead of winter. Protesters are outraged at the European Union for sanctions against Russia that have sparked soaring electricity bills and triggered a cost-of-living crisis.

“The aim of our demonstration is to demand change, mainly in solving the issue of energy prices, especially electricity and gas, which will destroy our economy this autumn,” event organizer Jiri Havel told local news iDNES and quoted by Reuters. 

The protest, held at Wenceslas Square in the heart of the capital, comes one day after the Czech government survived a no-confidence vote over opposition claims of inaction to protect citizens against energy hyperinflation.

Emerging political instability shows how Europe’s energy crisis fuels discontent among households. We noted a new study Friday that warned civil unrest could flare up in parts of Europe over the next six months because of the deteriorating macro backdrop of high inflation.

Czechs are tired of Western sanctions on Russia that have sparked a devastating energy crisis. They want Czech interest first over the EU’s and demand cheap Russian gas and neutrality.

https://twitter.com/DagnyTaggart369/status/1566102862475796482?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1566102862475796482%7Ctwgr%5Ed5aa06f8e5a898065870c01cad118a51de79181a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Feurope-brink-70000-czech-protesters-flood-prague-over-energy-crisis

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Things Go Awry, by Israel Shamir

Posted on October 12, 2021 | Leave a comment

It’s going to be a long time before the world or any appreciable part of it is going to make the green energy transition. Right now Europe is demonstrating the difficulty of doing so. From Israel Shamir at unz.com:

An interesting coincidence: the beginning of October ushered in a double crisis: the first collapse of the Internet and the final failure of the Green Economy. Facebook employees used saws and axes to get into their working places, for the smart doors stubbornly refused to yield the way and their badges had lost their magic touch. It seems the Internet trouble had been initiated by some unknown forces outside of Facebook. These forces have access to the inner working of the Internet. Perhaps it was military; or some obscure technicians guarding Internet secrets. They proved their power: even Facebook’s domain was placed up for sale. Mark Zuckerberg could not do it, I was told. Was it a blackmailer’s threat to global finance? Or an attempt to deflect Congressional hearings? Perhaps it was a simple demonstration of naked power.

At the same time, the first blow of winter revealed the inability of green energy to heat our homes and energise industry. Nature proved its abilities: all of a sudden, Europe’s winds refused to move the turbines. An unusual calm settled in the North, as if the winds were confined by Aeolus in his bag. Energy prices skyrocketed. The excellent future planned for mankind, all digital, internet-based and free of fossil remains, failed to materialise. Instead of continuing our march towards the dreadful New Normal, we shifted back to our troublesome but familiar normality when things went awry. The cowboy hat of Big Tech was too large for its head. Mercifully, this misfortune occurred well before the whole of mankind had been railroaded into smart dwellings heated by the mischievous wind. Otherwise, last weekend could have been the end of Homo Sapiens: we would have frozen outside, unable even to pass through the smart doors.

An energy crisis combined with an Internet failure is very dangerous. Why don’t we encounter extra-terrestrials? Here’s a possible answer: every sapient civilisation destroys itself before it achieves the capability to venture to the stars. Intelligent creatures tend to overestimate their thinking abilities; instead of sticking to known technologies and implementing small improvements, they want to make a giant leap forward. The results are gloomy, as we learn now.

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European Energy Crisis — And is That Gas You Think You’re Burning? by Tom Luongo

Posted on October 6, 2021 | Leave a comment

Like virtually all emergency shortages, the current European Energy Crisis has been created by European elites per some sort of arcane political calculations. From Tom Luongo at tomluongo.me:

The European Gas Crisis keeps hitting new high after new high as gas prices around the world go ballistic. While this isn’t just a European problem, if you read the MSM, that’s all they seem to care about.

You know, it snows in Japan as well folks, and China.

Prices keep skyrocketing in Europe because there is no shortage of idiocy at the top of the European power structure. The confluence of the pressurizing of Nordstream 2 with the release of the “Pandora Papers” and the beginnings of German coalition talks just after the beginning of Q4 should have everyone’s Spidey-Sense shutting down like your adrenals do after a long period of self-inflicted stress.

And honestly, whose adrenals aren’t on the verge of collapse after eighteen months of ‘flatten the curve,’ ‘follow the science,’ and ‘just roll over to the Communism, already, you disgusting plebe!’ that we’ve been going through.

I guess that’s yet another thing we have to try and factor into our analysis of what collapse is the most imminent?

Because when you put this gas crisis in Europe into its proper context it should be clear where the battle lines are being drawn as the extreme pressure cooker of today’s geopolitical landscape forces everyone off the sidelines and into the fray.

On the one hand we have natural gas prices in Europe approaching coffin corner. On the other we have Russia browning out gas deliveries to Europe. China is experiencing major energy shortages and the entirety of the coal delivery network around the world is buckling.

These are facts. There are more I could list but let’s stay focused here.

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Posted in Business, Energy, Financial markets, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, Politics, Propaganda, Trade

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Europe’s Energy Crisis Presents A Real Danger, by Daniel Lacalle

Posted on October 5, 2021 | Leave a comment

Europe’s governments have created an energy crisis for Europe. A severe winter could be disastrous. From Daniel Lacalle at app.hedgeye.com:

Europe’s Energy Crisis Presents A Real Danger - AdobeStock 9699481

This week the wholesale price of electricity has exceeded the psychological barrier of 200 euros per megawatt hour in most countries of the European Union.

Although the daily price currently only affects 15% of the energy sold, since the rest is locked for almost twelve months since last winter at much lower prices, it is a sign of future risk. Thousands of contracts are going to have to be revised with huge price increases in the next three months when the locked contracts expire.

The price of liquefied natural gas (LNG) has soared to $34/mmbtu delivered in December and January. In comparable energy terms it would be about $197 per barrel of oil equivalent, according to Morgan Stanley. Meanwhile, the price of natural gas (NBP) has risen more than 200% in 2021.

The price of CO2 emission rights has increased more than 1,000% since 2017, and more than 200% in 2021. This concept, which is a hidden tax for which the governments of the European Union are going to collect more than 21 billion euros in 2021, adds to the inflationary spike.

These extraordinary tax revenues should be used to mitigate the price increases in consumer bills and avoid an energy crisis in Europe that will sink the recovery.

Two key factors explain the rise in energy prices and in both there is a responsibility of governments: The forced closure of the economy is a key factor to understand the damage generated in the supply chains, and the prohibition of investment in gas resources and abandoning nuclear in Germany has led to a more volatile and expensive energy mix in peak demand periods.

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