Russia’s natural gas imports into the European Union have surpassed those from the United States for the first time in nearly two years since Brussels sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine came into force.
Pipeline gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia accounted for about 15 percent of the EU’s total imports in May, according to an analysis by the Independent Commodity Information Service (ICIS).
Following energy sanctions imposed by Brussels and individual member states, the United States surpassed Russia in September 2022 to supply about a fifth of the EU’s natural gas imports, most of which are LNG shipped by tanker across the Atlantic. But last month, U.S. supplies were just 14%, lagging behind Russia and Norway.
“If you look at the market share of Russian gas and oil, [liquefied natural gas] After all we’ve been through and all the efforts to decouple energy supplies and mitigate risks, Europe has gone up an inch,” said Tom Marzec-Manser, head of gas analysis at ICIS. Said of Financial Times.
The consultancy said last month was unique in some ways and the trend reversal was “unlikely to last”, but given factors such as the outage at a major US LNG facility and Russia increasing shipments to Europe via Turkey ahead of planned maintenance, May’s sharp change points to continued EU reliance on Russian gas.
Our continued reliance on Russia, and the United States, is driven primarily by our pursuit of so-called green energy and our active refusal to allow hydraulic fracturing of natural gas domestically, as well as our refusal to invest in viable carbon-neutral energy sources like nuclear power.
Former President Trump was vindicated this year when he criticized the European Union’s globalist environmental policies and its dependence on Russian energy, both of which were exposed as catastrophic failures of leadership in the wake of the Ukraine war. https://t.co/IF2i2mPPG5
—Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) January 2, 2023
Germany, Europe’s largest economy and industrial powerhouse, is heavily reliant on natural gas imports from Russia not just as an energy source but also a key component of its manufacturing industries, and has long boasted of being a leader in the environmental movement.
Yet, despite natural gas being a key component of much of the manufacturing base, Germany, along with other major European countries such as France and Spain, have banned hydraulic fracturing of natural gas, citing its controversial environmental impacts. Conversely, the United States has actually banned it. Lower The shale gas revolution has significantly reduced carbon emissions over the past two decades, making the country essentially energy independent.
meanwhile, Only 6 percent Domestic supplies will cover 70% of Germany’s natural gas consumption by 2023. Refusing to exploit its own natural resources and relying too heavily on imports, Germany has been vulnerable to the whims of foreign capital and has fallen into an energy crisis, for example when Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent disruption of the Nord Stream pipeline from Russia, partly owned by Germany, led President Vladimir Putin to drastically cut pipeline shipments.
In addition to depriving its citizens of most of their domestic natural gas sources, the German government has decided it has no plans to phase out its aging nuclear power plants and replace them with new facilities.
This is despite the fact that our neighbour and most important regional ally, France, has demonstrated the feasibility of nuclear energy to power the modern world. In fact, France produces a lot of nuclear power. 70 percent It accounts for half of the country’s total energy needs and has enabled the country to export. The surrounding area €3 billion a year in electricity supplies to other EU countries.
Unlike his Berlin colleague, French President Emmanuel Macron, Opponent A proponent of nuclear energy, he made one of his few appeals to the public during the campaign for the 2015 general election. phone He vowed to double investment in nuclear power and build at least 14 new reactors.
Germany nuclear scandal: forced closure of nuclear plants during energy crisis was based on deception, report claimshttps://t.co/PeYsHwefCu
—Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 27, 2024
