Germany triggers an energy emergency

[Suff]

Due to Russian reductions of gas flow through the Nordstream pipeline.

This now means the energy companies can pass on real energy prices which have been held artificially low.

German inflation is about to skyrocket. Gas stores may not be full by the winter and there is still a risk that 4ussia will cut the supplies entirely come winter.

France will be working hard to get their Nuclear power stations back online for winter. They have been lax due to ongoing renewable installations, but now it's crunch time.

[Workingman]

But this is what you Hawks wanted, kick Putrid in the nuts - we win.

However, when he kicks back, as we knew he would, it's his fault.

I can't work you idiots out.

[Suff]

Ah, yes, spin.

Germany had been hiding the impact of the sanctions, trying to ride a fine line between not upsetting allies and not upsetting Russia so the gas would continue to flow.

Well they just well and truly got kicked off the fence, hiding the cost of gas is now impossible, it is the gas itself which is now in short supply.

I'm all for this. If it becomes bad enough they will be forced to restart their nuclear reactors and when gas starts to flow again they will shut down coal.

I wasn't complaining, I was laughing. At least the UK was honest, fuel prices went up 10x, costs to consumers rose. Government only has so much money and they can't keep spending it forever to make things look good.

Now regulations are starting to filter into the EU countries. Already new gas boiler bans are filtering in from 2025, down from 2035. Planned obsolescence is another one. Even if your gas boiler is working fine, some governments are going to force heat pump exchanges.

It is all changing and you don't know because the UK press is not reporting it.

So you keep on saying there need to be talks and anyone who says their is nothing to talk about is a "hard man".

Whatever.

[cromwell]

Germany is restarting its coal fired power stations.
Something else that has not been widely reported.
Not an option for the UK as most of ours have been demolished!
I would prefer talks too, but Putin is gambling that economic pressures will split European unity.

[Workingman]

Trump was partially right, but what he failed to address was where Europe would get its energy from. It was the German UN delegation at the UN who sniggered, not Europe. BTW, many European countries agreed with him. What he failed to address was where Europe would get its immediate energy needs from. It has always relied on supplies from the East, even in Soviet times - it does not have enough of its own supplies - not from Groningen, Troll or the North Sea. The vast majority of gas pipelines to Europe transit through Russian Territory, even those from Khazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgistan. LNG ships and terminals do not cut it. Neither do windmills, solar or heat pumps.

[Suff]

Not at the moment l agree WM, I spent decades of solid reputational capital in the environment space trying to get them to understand that until they had rock solid baseline CO2 neutral power; they were going to have to look at Nuclear as a backstop.

I never realised just how much the climate forums are monitored until I put in a strong defence of Obama and his actions as opposed to using words those "environmentalists" wanted used. His speech writers knocked off my words and he delivered them.

Those "environmentalists" told me I was clueless, that gas was an acceptable and viable staging solution to fully renewable, storage backed, power.

Now they are like rabbits in the headlights and all they can do is bluster about how we have to ensure that Coal does not grow.

They offer no alternative, it is just "don't". Simple facts say that it takes a decade to build the infrastructure to replace what Russia is shutting off.

So in this scenario I want Russia to shut down the entire gas market. Firstly it really hurts them too. Secondly it forces Europe to move to better technologies. Which means they stick it to Russia for the very long term.

There is no end of bemoaning the fact that moving away from gas has been driven by lack of supply, not for the "right" reasons using the right words; but they fail to understand that not doing this now is to look a "gift crisis" in the mouth.

[Workingman]

Gas was, and is, a viable staging post to alternatives, FFS, and always has been.

It is not the perfect answer, but we cannot go from oil, coal and gas one day and transition to wind, solar, geothermal and unicorn farts etc, the next. We simply do not have the industrial capacity to do so.

We have to transition, obviously, and that will take time. It is not about "sticking it" to regimes we do not like.

[Suff]

Yeah well switching off Nuclear, which is net CO2 neutral, was hardly pragmatic but the German Greens didn't give a crap for anyone else.