Western Europe’s Surrender To Russian Hegemony Is Inevitable As It Dismantles Its Energy Production Capabilities

Whatever the outcome from Vladimir Putin amassing troops along the Ukraine border, the big prize - Western Europe – is positioning itself to surrender to Russian hegemony without Putin ever needing to fire a shot.

With its suicidal climate religion, combined with a woke, cultural self-loathing, most of Western Europe has committed not to produce enough energy to feed its people or keep them warm in winter. So, with the Russian bear pawing at its door, Western European leaders have effectively put their own populations under siege, defiantly refusing to produce the energy they must have to survive.

Putin smiles. Why would he use his army to conquer a continent if his target chooses to freeze itself into submission?

Speaking of the climate religion, Putin is not a co-religionist. Russia has vetoed the passage of a United Nations Security Council resolution that for the first time would have treated climate change as a threat to peace.

Rest assured, he is quite happy for the West to commit suicide by not producing hydrocarbons, he just isn’t going to do the same in Russia.

It’s not just carbon-based energy that western Europeans are dismantling, it’s nuclear too. Germany has dismantled most of its nuclear production during Angela Merkel’s destructive tenure, and its final nuclear power plants will be shuttered by the end of 2022.

It was only 10 years ago that nuclear power made up almost a quarter of the electricity generated in the country.

Following the impact of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown – German Chancellor Angela Merkel took the decision that same year to phase out the country’s nuclear power stations by 2022.

Merkel sought to appease the angry climate Gods by turning almost exclusively to green energy. But as has been documented elsewhere, there is often little or no sunshine and wind in Germany.

But neighboring Russia has plenty of natural gas to replace Germany’s lost energy production.

Unsurprisingly, France and Germany also ban fracking, as do several smaller western European countries, including Ireland. Modern, industrialized countries that refuse to produce sufficient energy will not survive as independent countries.

How Europe Has Become So Dependent On Putin For Gas (Bloomberg 11/10/2021)

Gazprom [a Russian state-run energy company] supplied almost a third of all gas consumed in Europe in 2020 and will likely become an even more important source in the short term as the continent shrinks domestic production.

Some of the biggest economies are among the most exposed, with Germany importing 90% of its needs.

Ironically, with green sources “unexpectedly” failing to produce enough energy, and with most of its nuclear plants closed, Germany is increasingly having to use dirty, old-fashioned coal to avoid blackouts.

Guess who is Germany’s largest supplier of coal? Russia, of course.

How bad are things getting in Europe? This headline was from September, before winter’s cold weather had even hit.

European Energy Crisis Forces Factories To Shut Down (Yahoo Finance - 9/17/2021)

It then got very cold in Autumn, and things are getting worse.

Power Surges to Record as Europe Struggles to Keep Lights on (Yahoo Finance – 12/21/2021)

Electricity prices surged to a fresh record as France scrambled to keep its lights on, sucking up supplies from the rest of Europe.

Europe’s Energy Crisis Is About To Get Worse As Winter Arrives (Bloomberg – 11/28/2021)

“If the weather gets cold in Europe there’s not going to be an easy supply solution, it’s going to need a demand solution,” said Adam Lewis, partner at trading house Hartree Partners LP.

A “demand solution” means that people who need energy to heat their homes will just have to “demand” less energy. In other words, they can expect to freeze.

Is there any hope for western Europe to avoid the energy catastrophe that awaits it? What if Russia were to send it more natural gas?

The long-awaited start of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany from Russia would ease the continent’s energy crunch. The project is finished, but has run into regulatory hurdles and it’s unclear when flows will start.

More Russian energy to the rescue! Its new Nord Stream 2 pipeline will double the volume of gas pumped by Russian-controlled gas giant Gazprom directly to Germany.

Perhaps the troop buildup on the Ukrainian border is Putin’s way of establishing a bargaining chip. In exchange for Russia not invading Ukraine, Europe agrees to open up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Then once the gas is flowing, western Europe wouldn’t dare turn it off, not if it meant starving and freezing its people.

It may be too late for Western Europe’s citizens to vote themselves out of the mess their ruling class has inflicted on them. To get the energy needed for basic survival, Germany and most of the rest of the continent will have to accept being Russian vassal states. The options of either freezing or obeying Putin are not good options, but sadly, Western Europe has already chosen that path.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:34 AM

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