Europe’s Gas Crisis: After Germany, Now Spain Limits Heating, Turns Off Lights
“Under a law passed Monday in often-sweltering Spain, offices, stores and hospitality venues will no longer be allowed to set their thermostats below 27 degrees Celsius (81 degrees Fahrenheit) in summer, nor raise them above 19 degrees Celsius in winter.”
Days after cities across Germany enforced energy rationing, the Spanish government passed a law enforcing similar measures nationwide.
Last week, major German cities, such as Berlin, Munich, and Nuremberg, decided to cut off hot water and turn off lights after Russia slashed the gas supply. Public offices, kindergartens, schools, and gyms in cities across Germany will have to go without warm water. Outdoor lighting of monuments, including the landmark Brandenburg Gate, has been turned off.
The sweeping measures imposed by Germany and Spain are part of a European Union-wide plan to limit gas usage — for which the continent heavily depends on Russia. As the Russian invasion of Ukraine drags on, Europeans fear that the Kremlin could completely cut off their gas supply, perhaps the continent’s worst energy crisis ahead of the winter.
The “urgent measures” announced by the Spanish government are even more drastic than the ones taken by Germany. They not only apply to public buildings but also to restaurants, hotels, shops, and small businesses. “Under a law passed Monday in often-sweltering Spain, offices, stores and hospitality venues will no longer be allowed to set their thermostats below 27 degrees Celsius (81 degrees Fahrenheit) in summer, nor raise them above 19 degrees Celsius in winter,” The Associated Press reported Wednesday.
The German newspaper Bild reported:
Due to Russia’s offensive against Ukraine, the Spanish government has agreed on “urgent measures” to saving and effectively use electricity.
All buildings in the public sector, as well as shopping malls, cinema halls, workplaces, hotels, train stations and airports won’t be cooling their rooms below 27°C (80°F) in summer and they are not be heated over 19°C (66°F) in winter. This was decided at the weekly cabinet meeting in Madrid, Minister for Ecological Change Teresa Ribera said on Monday.
Furthermore, by September 30 [all] shops and businesses must be fitted with automatic systems that keep doors closed depending on the season to prevent the dissipation of heat or cold air.
Lighting in offices which are not being used, shop windows, and monuments must be switched off by 2200 hours. Priority should be give to verify the energy efficiency in [certain types of] buildings. Ribera urged the private sector to transition increasingly towards home office. [Translated by the author]
Reality Bites: German Gov Makes U-Turn on Nuclear, Coal for Power Generation
Nine years after Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to shut down the country’s nuclear power plants, the German government is considering revising the measure.
By exiting nuclear and coal power, Merkel earned the title of “Climate Chancellor.” Her 16-year reign made Germany completely dependent on Russia for oil and gas supply. As Russia tightens its squeeze on gas flow, Merkel’s green energy policies are returning to bite ordinary Germans.
The German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported Berlin’s u-turn on nuclear energy:
The German chancellor on Wednesday said it might make sense to extend the lifetime of Germany’s three remaining nuclear power plants.
Germany famously decided to stop using atomic energy in 2011, and the last remaining plants were set to close at the end of this year.
However, an increasing number of politicians have been arguing for the postponement of the closures amid energy concerns arising from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The issue divides members of Scholz’s ruling traffic-light coalition. (…)
The German government has previously said that renewable energy alternatives are the key to solving the country’s energy problems. However, Scholz said this was not happening quickly enough in some parts of Germany, such as Bavaria.
The coal, much maligned by climate activists, won’t be phased out in Germany anytime soon. “The Federal Government is counting on coal power plants [to stay in service] longer. Until recently the coal mostly came from Russia. That is now going to end,” Deutsche Welle‘s German service admitted last month.
Paris: Climate Vigilantes Enforce Electricity Saving Measures
The situation is just as dramatic in other European countries. In France, gangs of vigilantes are roaming the streets of Paris to enforce EU’s energy-saving measures, The Associated Press suggested Wednesday.
“Fanning out like urban guerrillas through Paris’ darkened streets well after midnight, the anti-waste activists shinny up walls and drain pipes, reaching for switches to turn off the lights,” the AP News noted Wednesday. “It’s one small but symbolic step in a giant leap of energy saving that Europe is trying to make as it rushes to wean itself off natural gas and oil from Russia,” the news agency added admiringly.
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Comments
‘Scuse me while I chuckle. And that chuckle will turn into roaring laughter this winter when all over Europe they’re bringing out the dead.
Don’t laugh too hard. We’ll also be in the dark and locked in our homes here in this country once our leaders complete their WEF climate plans here. I’m sure in Europe the political elites are looking at this as an opportunity to ween their subjects off of decadent luxuries like heat and lights.
Not going to happen. People are waking up to the corrupt politicians plans.
The difference is that we have reserves of energy that was simply do not tap right now. The Europeans have no such option. They are in the place they’re in because they must import energy and they decided to bite the hand that is feeding them, so to speak.
Maybe in solid blue states.
Red states like Florida? Not so much.
Springtime for Putin and the Motherland
Russia is happy and gay
They’re marching to a faster pace
Look out, here comes the master race
Springtime for Putin and the Motherland
Winter for the NWO’s vaunted EU
Springtime for Putin and the Motherland
Come on, Euros, go into your dance
Yes…laughter at ordinary people dying seems like a healthy and appropriate response.
More Green Energy please
What was that 80’s song?
“I use my solar panels at night”?
Maybe it’s just me being a vengeful Jew, but after the Holocaust, Europe deserves all the misery it gets, and then some.
As a vengeful American, I say they deserve this after all the help we gave in blood and treasure, only to thank us with scorn and pettiness.
In short: let them freeze in the dark.
Plus, all the good advice we gave them about NOT becoming dependent on Russian energy.
Trump was correct, yet again.
“In short: let them freeze in the dark.”
Well, not forever. Just til summer comes.
Then they can burn 🙂
=10,000
Then let them roast in the summer. I am a vengeful American Jew.
England and France – always there when they need US.
Same, especially when Cultured, Educated Europe bent over backwards to keep the Iranian economy going, and did everything but send troops to the parts of Israel still under Arab-Muslim Occupation.
Of course they are educated. I was at Charles de Gaulle airport in 2014. I noticed that even the youngest children could speak French!
The French announced that because of the ongoing drought, they need to scale back nuke plant operations because they cannot get enough cooling water.
Without Russian Natural gas and French nuclear power Europe is left burning Russian coal still coming in by rail.
Until it doesn’t.
.
One of the most dangerous parts of this is that at least in Spain, the Federal Government has not revealed if, and to what extent, they are going to be following the same restrictions they are imposing on the peons. Which has been noted by those selfsame peons.
🎼🎶When the lights go out again…
Reminded of the British diplomat commenting on the cusp of war… the lights throughout Europe are going out…. well…. here is a real COLD war in the offing. I keep replaying the Germans laughing at Trump about Germany’s dependency on Russian energy. They reap what they sowed.
Oh, please. The German people are invincible!
They can do ANYthing, given their engineering prowess, superior intelligence, and… something about which I’ve not yet thought.
Or something.
Or something?
I suppose you’re not aware that the Germans are credited with the invention of the toilet seat. Of course, a few years later the Japanese made a slight improvement by drilling a hole in it.
You don’t need a hole in it if you learn how to go AROUND it.
In fact, it was such “thinking outside the bowl” that doomed the Maginot Line.
The German penchant for complexity means they’d manufacture ball-bearing mouse traps.
The rest of the world already has ball-bearing mouse traps. They are called “Tomcats”.
The Germans spent a Trillion Euro on solar and wind. They built out 158% of their peak electricity usage. And, in reality it produces about 8%. (though they monkey the books and claim nearly 20%).
And, because nuke plants take 3 days to start, they cannot be used as back up. Because you can start a coal plant in 3 hours, they come on when the wind stops and the clouds come. However, like cars, coal power plants pollute most when they start and stop. So, German emissions as a whole went up.
Once you replace incandescent bulbs you can’t save much energy by turning off lights (you can’t save the same thing twice over).
I use LED lamps (“bulbs”) and purpose-built LED fixtures. My TV is OLED and draws – maximum – 20 watts. Everything else is all energy stingy. And, yes, it all works very well; nothing seems to be a compromise.
Note: I fitted a smart thermostat and it does help. And, no, the power company has no access to it and hasn’t even brought up the idea.
If some Whitmer / Hochul / Newsome drone ends up mandating some fixed percentage of reduction, I’ll be in a would of hurt.
we used to get postcards from the local power company telling us that we used more electricity than our neighbors. Maybe twice as much, maybe less but close to that.
My answer: we have 6 people living in this house; my neighbors have 2-3 each. My husband works from home, running 2 computers and 4 screens, plus my computer. Our 4 kids homeschool, so they are home all day, and have a school computer. My neighbors – they, both adults in each house and the one teen on the road – leave the house all day for school and work. If we use more electricity than any one of our neighbors, I find it very good of us to ONLY use twice as much as any one other house considering the above information.
The Green Misdeal
1. In February 2022, Germany and other EU countries approved sanctions with the aim of crippling the Russian economy. The sanctions were wide-ranging, targeting individuals, banks, businesses, monetary exchanges, bank transfers, exports, and imports.
2. In July 2022 Russia responded by slashing the gas supply to Europe.
3. Everyone is totally shocked.
It sounds like they really didn’t think things through, huh?
Shouldn’t have listened to the drooling imbecile in the WH and his puppeteers.
Who would have guessed energy production is a matter of national security?? sarc
After the eco-nuts have us eating bugs in the dark they will “save us” by allowing some farming to come back. Then we will be told to keep voting for them as our saviors.
Just like we should be grateful now that a gallon of gas is only $4.75
did the Parliaments of Spain, France and Germany have a vote on any of this??
Coal might be a problem for Germany. Barge traffic on the Rhine, which is how they transport coal and lots of other things, is reported to be coming to an end within several weeks. The water levels have dropped and are reported to be six inches over minimum depth. A further drop of 15 inches is expected over the next five to eight weeks, making barge traffic impossible.
They’ll figure out something. I fear it will involve the US.
I fear you are right.
Send more US coal to Europe? From what port? On what ships? From what US mines? The ports are already congested and shipping is limited. Will the longshoremen unions play ball?
It isn’t as if the environmental whackos in the US are going to suddenly endorse mining, transport and shipping of coal. They are already digging in their heels about LNG pipelines and facilities to increase export to Europe in spite of ‘but Ukraine and Russia’.
We can put it on the same planes that are carrying in the baby formula on the return trip.
They can always mine their own coal, Germany does have coal deposits. The downside is, the coal in German is lignite, it’s almost half water and it is THE dirtiest burning of all fossil fuels.
I was referring to transport to the coal fired electricity plants using barge traffic which is way cheaper and more efficient than trucks and rail. The Germans don’t have especially high stocks of coal on hand and they use Russian coal. Yes they could mine their own but will the greens let them?
Let the greens freeze in the world they wish for.
This is known as “the perfect storm”.
True. The Europeans set themselves up for failure by becoming overly dependent upon Russia for oil, Nat gas and coal. Now they slap a bunch of sanctions on Russia after offering sufficient provocation, as interpreted by Russia, over Ukraine and seem surprised there are consequences.
Look in the mirror. That’s the look on my face when a liberal gets the catalytic converter cut off of their prius or their windows smashed in when the park anywhere in the hell hole blue state they’ve created.
God said vengeance is mine alone, but that doesn’t mean I can’t smile at it.
This isn’t really about Russia. To be sure, that’s the pretext, but what’s really happening is a head start on the permanent reduction of living standards required by the WEF’s 2030 and 2050 climate goals. Does anybody believe that these measures will ever go away, or that Germany’s nuclear shutdown will actually be suspended? The EU will announce that saving the planet in accordance with Agenda 2030 requires these measures be made permanent EU-wide, along with further drastic reductions in population mobility.
Drop the very last word and you’ll be closer to a possible reality. If there is a reduction in population, the problem will be relieved for those remaining, however many there will be.
.
I wonder when the sheeple in Europe will turn into mad dogs?
When they are cold and hungry. Hungry people will begin fighting back.
Not in our lifetime, they’ve been docile little socialists for way too long to change overnight.
They’ve been comfortable and being docile while comfortable is easy. Being docile while starving and freezing is not nearly so likely.
When people’s children are starving, all bets are off.
By exiting nuclear and coal power, Merkel earned the title of “Climate Chancellor.”
———————-
Not climate chancellor, climate communist.
Everyone should be using Climate Communist, just like liberals control the language it’s time to put them on the defensive.
Ya just can’t fix stupid.
This is tragicomic farce. All of Europe’s energy woes are entirely self-inflicted, the result of manifestly idiotic, naive and foolish policies implemented by the likes of narcissistic dupes and imbeciles such as Frau Merkel.
Everyone recall how the mainstream European and American media outlets feted and lauded idiot Merkel as the alleged “true” leader of the west, during President Trump’s tenure? Yet, President Trump was right in criticizing Germany’s dependence on Russian gas for its energy needs, and, Merkel was indefensibly wrong.
“Frau Merkel”
The germans have always liked a commie dictator, and that is exactly what Merkel was. Funny how the germans always pay a high price for their stupidity.
Time to ramp up domestic and become an exporter again.
Then charge them a huge premium since they still don’t hold their commitment to NATO even after all of this.
Well, their 3% of GDP won’t amount to much soon, after their economy crashes.
Trump wuz right!
Do they know they are playing with fire cutting off utilities?
Next to food shortage ( and they are working on that as well) cutting off utilities will get them a revolt.
The bureaucrat and political elites (inner party) will be fully protected by the police and military. The outer party and proles will suffer…but they have no real voice and no real way of resisting.
They were the idiots that allowed themselves to be disarmed.
Collateral damage from ESG policy and the Baidan/Maidan/Slavic Spring in Obama’s World War Spring (WWS) series.
“Dandy” Don Meredith is warming up in the booth……
“Turn out the lights, the party’s over. They say that allllllllllll good things must end!”
Turns out virtue signaling sometimes has a steep cost. Maybe Muslims will invade Spain again and bring oil with them