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European Countries Resort to EU-Wide Gas Rationing After Russia Slashes Supply 

European Countries Resort to EU-Wide Gas Rationing After Russia Slashes Supply 

AP News: “Russia’s Gazprom on Wednesday halved the amount of natural gas flowing through a major pipeline from Russia to Europe to 20% of capacity.”

The European Union member states have rolled out a plan for gas rationing ahead of the winter as Russia cuts supplies through its pipelines. On Tuesday, the EU members “backed a voluntary 15% reduction in gas usage over the winter, a target that could become mandatory if the Kremlin ordered a complete shutdown of gas to Europe,” the British newspaper Guardian reported.

The 27 EU member states agreed on the plan after Russia further slashed gas supply to Europe, citing maintenance issues. “Russia’s Gazprom on Wednesday halved the amount of natural gas flowing through a major pipeline from Russia to Europe to 20% of capacity,” The Associated Press noted. Russia has been reducing its gas exports to the EU since Kremlin launched the invasion of Ukraine in late February.

For decades, countries like Germany have heavily depended on cheap Russian gas to power their electricity generation and industrial production. Germany, Europe’s largest economy, is so reliant on Russian gas exports that it does not have a single terminal to receive liquefied natural gas (LNG) through its ports.

The mandated rationing of gas caused further squabbling between the EU member states. The German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported Tuesday:

A scramble to get European Union countries to agree to “voluntarily” reduce their gas consumption by 15% has highlighted major divisions among member states.

The Czech presidency of the EU dragged the bloc’s energy ministers to an emergency meeting in Brussels on Tuesday to try to find unity on a proposal which was only proposed by the European Commission a week ago but had already exposed deep divisions between EU countries. (…)

The battles over the proposal began when countries which do not have a heavy reliance on Russian gas, like Spain and Portugal, started raising concerns about what the 15% reduction would mean for their citizens. (…)

Those countries have been placated with a number of exemptions and derogations. Countries which are not connected to others’ gas networks like the island nations of Ireland, Malta and Cyprus are exempt and nations can drop out of the responsibilities if they are overshooting their storage targets. (…)

Germany is heavily reliant on Russian gas imports and facing repeated reductions of deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. Russia has announced that as of Wednesday it will further slash gas supplies through the pipeline by 20%, down from 40%.

As autumn swiftly approaches, the gas rationing will hardly solve Europe’s looming energy problems. “The plan highlights fears that countries will be unable to meet goals to refill storage and keep their citizens warm during the winter months and that Europe’s fragile economic growth may take another hit if gas will have to be rationed,” Reuters noted.

German Politicians Once Scoffed at Trump’s Warnings

But all this could have been avoided. German politicians and media scoffed at President Donald Trump whenever he warned of Germany’s fatal dependence on Russian energy.

At the UN general assembly in late 2018, when President Trump cautioned Berlin against becoming ‘totally dependent’ on Russian gas, the German delegation openly ridiculed him. “German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas could be seen smirking alongside his colleagues,” The Washington Post smugly noted.

Today, the German politicians aren’t laughing anymore. After decades of failed energy policy, they are now begging people to take cold showers and cut on home heating.

The ordinary Germans are apparently so angry that Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock fears “popular uprisings” over rising energy bills. If the Russian pipeline isn’t up and running soon, “we won’t get any more gas, and then we won’t be able to provide any support for Ukraine at all, because we’ll be busy with popular uprisings,” she warned last week.

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Comments

What did socialists use before candles? Electricity.

Leftists are working towards making that meme true. And they call themselves progressives. I loathe these people.

That Sooper Jeanyus Biden shutting down the Israeli pipeline was sooooooo brilliant.

Hey, ummm, maybe nuclear should be reconsidered?

Karma

    MattMusson in reply to venril. | July 27, 2022 at 1:13 pm

    Except the USA is exporting 11 billion cubic feet of LNG to Europe every day.
    In October, when the export facility in Texas comes back on line – we will be exporting 17 billion cubic feet per day.

    That means, your natural gas bill will be 3 to 4 times higher this winter.

      CommoChief in reply to MattMusson. | July 27, 2022 at 5:14 pm

      Assuming that no export controls are imposed by a new Congress in January…..sure it won’t impact this winter too much but if they went into effect on 15 March we could dictate terms to Europe ….

Wait a minute, haven’t the leaders of Europe informed their populace that they must make many sacrifices for Ukraine? The Biden Admin has continuously made these claims here in the US. Maybe they can get some advice on messaging from Biden’s comms team.

Alternatively, the Europeans might stop enabling the continuing proxy war against Russia. They could go further and stop unnecessarily PO and provoking the Nation that supplies the energy which powers their economy and modern lifestyle.

For sure and certain what they’ve been doing hasn’t worked out the way these European elites hoped and claimed. They really need to figure out an off ramp soon. If not the consequences of their folly will continue to rise.

    Peabody in reply to CommoChief. | July 27, 2022 at 3:22 pm

    “…haven’t the leaders of Europe informed their populace that they must make many sacrifices for Ukraine?”

    Ukrainian solders are now being treated in US military hospitals receiving the best treatment available, far better than our own veterans receive in VA hospitals. Why not send Ukrainian soldiers to the VA and let our veterans get first class treatment in military hosptials?

This clinches it.

Europe needs more windmills /s

Self-inflected injury in two parts.

    MattMusson in reply to n.n. | July 27, 2022 at 3:10 pm

    Biden’s “Hold my breath until I turn Blue” sanctions have not hurt Russia. But, the impact on my 401K means I will have to work several years passed what I was going to under Trump.

Did Canada ever return the turbines Gazprom needed to run those lines at capacity?

I seem to recall they’d kept them after Gazprom had sent them in for their yearly maintaince.

Kind of sad and kind of funny all told.

Too bad the Germans can’t embark on a crash building of a few port facilities to unload CNG from the US and at the same time restart the coal plants with abundant domestic coal or imported coal from the US which has centuries of supply. Oh…Greta will be very angry and Branden stopped all that CNG and Coal. Well, deal with it along with the collapse of the Euro which is immanent.

BTW: pull all US Troops out of Europe. Let them deal with Russia after nearly a century of free riding on America.

Too bad somebody important didn’t warn the feckless your a pee uns about letting russia the enemy be your supplier.

Obviously Europe must pave every bit of arable land and open space with inefficient solar panels made in China, that require massive disposal of toxic waste and glass. Because “Green.”

So Putin is serious about climate change?

I’ve got an idea. Hear me out on this one. It’s a little complicated. I know we’re out of energy and our population is going to suffer. Our economies maybe strangled. But isn’t now a great time to stop raising beef to feed people and reduce the use of fertilizer so we can’t grow much. Whaddya think? Brilliant, right?