Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The European Green Energy Transition fantasy is in tatters, as Putin’s demand that Europeans pay for Russian gas in Rubles spreads panic throughout the EU.
With war in Ukraine and threats from Putin, Europeans anxiously wait for energy rationing
PUBLISHED FRI, APR 1 20221:13 AM EDT
Chloe Taylor @CHLOETAYLOR141Energy analysts and government officials have warned that Europe could soon face rationing of diesel and natural gas.
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European countries are facing the possibility of energy supplies being rationed, as a dispute between Moscow and the West over payments for Russian exports rages on.
European countries are heavily dependent on Russian oil and gas deliveries, but Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in late February saw the EU and the U.K. impose a barrage of sanctions that included cutting down on Russian energy imports.
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Germany warned on Wednesday that it may soon be facing a natural gas emergency that could necessitate the rationing of gas supplies. German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said the “early warning” measure did not yet mean the country had to resort to rationing gas but called on consumers and companies to reduce their energy consumption.
Meanwhile, Austria’s government announced Wednesday that it had activated the first step of a three-stage emergency plan that would see it monitor the country’s gas market more closely. Officials cited Russia’s demand for payments in rubles as the reason for the triggering of the contingency plan, noting that if it reached the third stage in the plan, emergency control measures such as rationing may come into force.
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Putin said last week that the Kremlin will seek payment in rubles for gas sales from “unfriendly” countries — a demand that has been rejected by the G-7 nations. On Thursday, the Russian leader said he had signed a decree saying foreign buyers must pay in rubles for Russian gas from April 1.
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Diesel rationing
Meanwhile, Jim Watson, a professor of energy policy and the director of the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, said it was “certainly possible” that the U.K. could see a government-imposed rationing of fuel for cars.
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Rory Stewart, former British International Development Minister and a senior fellow at Yale’s Jackson Institute, said in a tweet earlier this month that it is possible to cut the income Russia receives from oil exports by focusing on reducing demand.
“It would take a government and civilian effort equivalent to the Covid response,” he said.
His proposed policies, which he said should remain in place throughout the crisis in Ukraine, included reducing the U.K.’s speed limits to 50 miles per hour, making all public transport free, and calling on companies like Uber to open technology that would allow free civilian ridesharing.
“This would reduce demand and price of Russian oil, [and] have a catastrophic impact on Putin,” Stewart said.
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Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/01/ukraine-war-could-european-countries-implement-oil-and-gas-rationing.html
It is impossible to impose meaningful sanctions on a country which has something you need, and cannot live without.
But it only takes 3-5 days to bring a fracking well into Production. Obviously it probably takes longer to perform detailed surveys and drill test wells, and assemble skilled people and equipment, but some of these surveys have already been performed, at least to a preliminary stage.
Britain had productive fracked shale gas wells in Lancashire, very close to where the pensioner pictured at the top of the page lives, until they decided to close them all. The British government decided at the start of February to forcibly close the productive fracking wells and seal them with concrete, against the wishes of the site owner.
The point is there is unequivocal evidence Europe could produce substantial amounts of their own gas, by embracing fracking. Europe could at least attempt to bring this gas into production, in time for next winter.
But Europe’s leaders, including British leaders, are still refusing to take obvious defensive measures against the very real shortages their people could face this winter. Going by their actions, they would rather their people freeze to death than admit Trump was right about fracking. They would rather impose rationing, hardship and suffering on ordinary European people, than admit the failure of their absurd green energy fantasies.
Remember those productive shale gas wells in Lancashire which the British government forcibly closed a few weeks ago, when your politicians demand you accept energy rationing.
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Any politician bringing harm to citizens over climate change should be immediately considered a crook.
Order a couple of tons of hard coal and have it dumped in the back yard. Buy a couple of steel buckets. You now have portable room heaters independent of gas and electric supplies. Spread the ash on your icy walkways.
We used to do that when I was a little kid. The truck trip to the mine with my Grandpa was always an adventure. Natural gas came to our farm in the late 60’s, a great improvement to our lifestyle, especially the “child labor” of lugging ash buckets to put on the gravel road…and the coal mine eventually became a place where we all met to play pick-up hockey in the flooded and frozen open pit, the mining operation having been shut down due to lack of demand….
This again?
Once again I point you to the multiple statements from UK and European governments doubling down on and accelerating renewables roll out…
Doubling down, all the way to the stone age.
And I point you Griff to the ONE statement from Einstein that doing the same thing over and over again (“doubling down”) and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.
Statements by politicians are clearly a very low standard for actionable information. What relevance does this have for real science and the rules of physics and economics? – essentially none.
German industry is going to need a lot of backup diesel generators to get by.
Could not possibly work. Fertilizer alone need major gas. See BASF chief’s declaration.
“Officials cited Russia’s demand for payments in rubles as the reason for the triggering of the contingency plan,”
Gee, Eric, sanctions on Russia closed down usual forms of international payment and froze its assets in Western countries. Even if Putin is the devil reincarnated he doesnt have convenient ways to be paid. Surely the EU and others arent outraged that they are not trusted. Apparently Putin has tied the ruble to gold at 60rubles/gram to give value to the ruble.
Clown governments of EU, UK, US, Canada… and apparently Australia have a made in heaven scapegoat for destruction of the world economy by crises created by their own idiot policies for Net Zero psychosis.
Perhaps Ukraine was going to be invaded anyway, but NATO and US openly intended to bring Ukraine into NATO and sent trainloads of armour and ammunition to the Russian border area before Russia moved its troops there. This was after over 20yrs of NATO expansion and invitations to not just Warsaw Pact Eastern European countries but former USSR Republics (to defend them against whom?).
Ask yourself how US would react if Russia started shipping armaments to Cuba (we know that answer) or Venezuela? The clowns even have some responsibility for the Ukraine crisis
Very well and concisely stated. You should anticipate being called a ‘communist’ shortly by one of our resident neo-cons.
When you have to lie about what your opponents have been saying, you have admitted to everyone else (even if you can’t admit it to yourself) that you have lost the argument.
This is the second time in two days that you have been forced to make such a lie.
We’ll have to see how many times you are forced into it over the next few days.
Righty-o, Mark. Except for your responding to me instead of Mr. Pearse, I stand by the accuracy of my post.
And now for some fun – If you check out the following link, I’m sure you’ll recognize one of our resident neo-cons using the c-word to disparage the comments of another poster who isn’t yet fully on board with blowing up the West’s economies in order to make the world safe for the Biden administration and NATO expansion.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/03/31/gas-rationing-germany-paying-a-horrible-price-for-green-energy-insanity/#comment-3488538
Not a single mention of communism in that entire thread.
BTW, saying that someone is supporting communism isn’t calling them a communist, unless you are desperate to change the subject.
Try the third line in the post. Also have this one from you:
‘Communists always manage to make it about evil rich guys who run the world. As if Putin wasn’t one of the richest guys on the planet.’
And here’s the link for your convenience:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/03/31/gas-rationing-germany-paying-a-horrible-price-for-green-energy-insanity/#comment-3489617
You have an objection to reality?
‘You have an objection to reality?’
Reality being, well, real, obviously not. I just don’t know, or care, if the objects of your derision are communists or not. What I do know, and have demonstrated a couple of times now, is that you often use that label to deride posters who don’t think that expanding NATO into Ukraine is worth risking a hot war with Russia and/or blowing-up the West’s economies.
Btw, for someone who professes to oppose his government’s domestic efforts to make harmful CAGW policies ‘reality’, you seem to have very little curiosity about the harmful effects of its foreign policies.
Sadly I have come to put a twist to the words of Michael Obama. Although the vanished past of most all men and nations is are both dark with many shames, and bright with noble acts as well, to paraphrase, since Obama became President ” For the first time in my life I am deeply ashamed of the vast majority of US policy, at home and abroad.”
The globalist exerted immense effort to keep Russia and Trump apart. Say what you will about Putin, he refused to play the one world anti sovereign power games. Trump was highly successful at the deal, and very likely could have convinced Russia to enter expanded positive trade with both the EU, the USA, and India, and to minimize China. The bought and paid for US government made certain that did not happen. and the world is crying because of their lies.
Ask yourself exactly what offensive weapons were put in Ukraine? Do really think Russia putting all the defensive weapons it could into Cuba would cause a ripple in the US government? Heck if Russia put a couple hundred thousand troops in Cuba who would care? Now an offensive nuclear weapon as Russia did in the 60’s might cause a reaction!
Hi Jim. Just to let you know up front, I appreciate, and learn a lot from, your climate-related posts on this site. Like you, I am highly skeptical of the so-called science that ‘supports’ CAGW and am against our government’s attempts to ram alarmists’ policies down our throats. Where I differ from some of the other posters on this blog, is that I believe that our government’s ineptness and malfeasance doesn’t start and end with ‘climate’, but extends into many other areas, including its foreign policy. In a nutshell, I think ‘Public Choice Theory’ largely explains why the Federal government has slipped out from under the Constitution that supposedly restrains it.
Re. your comment, if the Biden administration and it’s ‘neo-con’ allies have their way and bring Ukraine into NATO, then the latter’s defensive perimeter, and Article 5 trip-wire, move eastward to Russia’s border. As far as defensive weapons go, there’s no difference between an offensive cruise missile and a defensive cruise missile, except targeting. Putin and the Russians know this, hence the invasion. There’s also the fact of Ukraine using its ‘defensive’ weapons since the 2014 Maidan coup to suppress the secession of ethnic Russians in the Donbass region.
I don’t think the USSR ever had 100k’s of troops in Cuba, but they had sufficient advisors and security to install and, presumably, operate their ICBM’s. And there should have been no surprise about the Soviet missiles moving into Cuba, as the US / NATO had previously placed nuclear missiles in Turkey. These, of course, were removed, albeit without fanfare, when the Soviets withdrew their missiles from Cuba.
Frank
Please explain to me the psychology behind this post. Explain what was the thinking in the Kremlin that viewed this so-called ‘encirclement’ as a dire threat to the Russian way of life? Explain to me what happened that led Russia to view western countries as enemies? What was Russia doing or planning that required them to cast western countries in the role of the ‘bad guy’, as enemies of the Russian state?
The USA is surrounded (mostly) by other countries, shares land borders with them and rarely, if ever, feels threatened by them. The UK is surrounded (in part) by EU countries and yet rarely feels threatened by them. Why has Russia reacted this way? Why does it desperately need the west to appear to be the enemy?
NATO as a block, wasn’t or isn’t a threat to Russia. That was Russia’s own paranoia and maybe rightfully justified, having been invaded partly since the Mongols, Ottomans and before, including more recently Napoleon and Hitler. NATO would never invade Russia offensively, just because it has 7000 nuclear weapons. And we have no reason to invade, or wipe them off the map, since it would be reciprocal.
The West lost an opportunity on March 31st, 1954 to have Russia join NATO, which was proposed by the USSR as an olive branch a year after the Korean War with Stalin recently dying, and a year before the Warsaw Pact was created in 1955. It was rejected by the Western powers at the time as they didn’t take Molotov seriously, based upon post war activities and the Korean War. What could have been, we will never know, and may have never worked anyway having a blend of communism and capitalism.
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/molotovs-proposal-the-ussr-join-nato-march-1954
Boris Yeltsin also proposed something similar in 1999, just before he passed out drunk and appointed Putin acting president at midnight Jan 1st, 2000. That was rebuffed by Madeline Albright and Colin Powell although George W. Bush had sort of endorsed it, as NATO being from the Baltic to the Black Sea. So that never happened either, in part, because Prime Minister Putin was busy flattening Chechnya in 1999 for the second time in the 1990’s.
It may have never worked, but we will never know now. Perhaps Churchill and Patton were more on target with Operation Unthinkable in 1945, with taking out Stalin, but that would have been a herculean task without going full on nuclear, and after we had just been ‘allies’ in WW2. So what now I wonder, after maybe having missed opportunities to have Russia join the WEST, something that had been in the dreams of Russia since Peter and Catherine.
We can argue until the cows come home about geopolitics and history, but there is no excuse for this unwarranted and unjustified, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the brutality towards the Ukrainian people.
You are ignoring the the bio weapon threats, the threats of putting nukes there, the extensive history of Pundits articulating the danger of such provocation. You are ignoring the open atrocities against Ukrainian citizens that respect their Russian history. You are ignoring the not so subtle Globalist plots to squeeze Russia into cooperating with the one world Government tyrannical games, and the extent they were eilling to
No rationing. People should not be expected to cut back because their leaders are knuckle dragging numbskulls. The people should get a swift kick in backside for being stupid enough to vote the knuckle dragging numbskulls into office.
‘The people should get a swift kick in backside for being stupid enough to vote the knuckle dragging numbskulls into office.’
The ‘knuckle dragging numbskulls’ are working on it. By the time the next election comes around, all blame for inflation and attendant commodity and energy shortages will be squarely placed on Putin / Russia.
Perhaps Putin has inadvertently done the EU a favour?
Perhaps we should not dis Putin till we can look back and take stock with more insight?
Genocide comes in many forms and Europeans know how to do it
Will Ukrainian refugees have to dig their own coal to stay warm in host countries?
Russia will have a lot to answer for when the fighting is over. Nuremberg style tribunals wouldn’t be out of the question.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/russian-controlled-areas-ukraine-capital-kyiv-show-evidence-war-crimes
Of course the usual suspects will just declare that it was the CIA dressed as Russian soldiers that did all of this.
Don’t hold your breath, War Crimes Tribunals only happen when it’s politically convenient. Saddam Hussein should have been faced with a War Crimes Tribunal but his connections were too politically inconvenient to be made public, hence the rather more private trial by the Iraqi people.
Those Lancashire fracking wells have been given a stay of execution.
Come on WUWT, report the truth, not just what you like because it fits your story:
https://cuadrillaresources.uk/
Their only goal is drastically reduced human population, starvation is the easiest. Cold and hungry people are weak and easily frightened. Fighting GMO’s and making food/fuel to expensive is just one tactic, getting people to stop having children and youth to mutilate themselves is another. These are fundamentally evil people.