Andrew Stuttaford of National Review writes on Europe’s energy dependence and its impact on Ukraine.
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- Germany and the rest of Europe’s dependence on Russian natural gas is limiting the continent’s intervention in Ukraine.
- Despite the developing situation, Germany is still moving forward with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
- Europe has pursued an “everything but” energy strategy that has had governments picking energy winners and losers while historically demonizing domestically-sourced natural gas.
- Europe’s vulnerability provides an important lesson to the United States. While we should look for serious ways to reduce emissions, we must do so while maintaining our energy security.
“It’s hardly a secret that, even if it has the political will (or inclination) to do so, Germany’s willingness to push back against a Russian incursion (‘minor‘ or otherwise) is severely constrained by its dependence on Russian gas (I included some statistics on this here), a dependence that, for various reasons, the opening of the Nord Steam 2 pipelines will (if it happens, and I think that it’s highly likely that it will) make even more dangerous than it already is.”
Read the full article here.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.
