Europe is descending into climate lockdowns due to reliance on wind and solar

To be sure, Russia is throttling gas supplies, but what they won’t mention is how Europe became enthralled to Russia and its vast natural gas reserves in the first place. The fact is, Europe spent decades replacing fossil fuels with intermittent, unreliable renewable energy, largely from wind and solar.

By Michael Bastasch

If energy is life and the lack of energy is death, then Europe (and the US) dismantling its own energy security is the equivalent of civilizational suicide.

Europe is once again on the brink of lockdowns — though their goal this time around is not to “stop the spread” of a virus. This time, EU members, and the UK, are imposing energy rationing schemes on Europe's peons, in an attempt to keep hungry people from freezing, in the dark, this coming winter.

In Germany, they’re no longer heating public pools, traffic lights are being shut off, and turning off city fountains.

Hungary instructed schools to look into wood-burning to keep warm.

The Netherlands is urging citizens to shower less

Spain is literally regulating people’s thermostats.

The UK is not only bracing for potential blackouts, but also for eye-popping electricity rates.

Power bills are set to hit $5,000 a year, (that is on top of $5,000 heating bills), which one group warned, will drive one-third of peon households into “fuel poverty.”

Heavy industry is also facing restrictions, if not outright shutdowns as electricity prices fly off the charts and inflation soars. Some chemical, fertilizer and steel plants are already shutting down as this new, economic contagion spreads.

Of course, the EU elites, who lord it over Europe's exploited peons, in luxury settings, with private planes and private yachts, air-conditioning, and heating, and plenty of the best foods and clothing, will tell you this is all Russia’s fault.

To be sure, Russia, after lots of stupid, back-firing sanctions, is finally throttling gas supplies, but what EU elites do not mention is how Europe became enthralled to Russia, and its vast natural gas reserves in the first place.

The fact is, Europe, especially boasting Germany, spent decades replacing fossil fuels with intermittent, unreliable renewable energy, largely from wind and solar.

NOTE: In 2022, there was plenty of hot weather and sunshine, but little wind and rainfall in Europe.

As a result, there was much solar electricity, but little wind electricity, and curtailed hydro electricity.

Nuclear electricity was also reduced, because those plants need adequate cooling water to function.

For years, the EU political elites ignored, dismissed and even mocked those who sounded the alarm on their “green” indulgences. German leaders smugly snickered and openly laughed at Trump, after he warned them, SEVERAL YEARS AGO.

The pitfalls of this misguided policy were obvious — wind and solar power need tremendous amounts of backup fuel sources given their intermittent nature.

Europe, especially Germany, became addicted to cheap Russian gas, because the more renewables they dumped onto the grid, the more reliant they became on ultra, low-cost Russian natural gas.

Nowhere is this more obvious than Europe’s economic powerhouse, Germany.

Under former Chancellor Angela Merkel, the country embarked on the so-called “Energiewende” to transition to “green” energy, like wind and solar.

Germany sank about $600 BILLION into this green fantasy, while closing base-load coal plants, and base-load nuclear plants.

Germany refused to produce, by means of fracking, the potentially bountiful natural gas reserves right under their feet.

Merkel began the insane policy of closing highly capable nuclear power plants after the Fukushima disaster (which was due to ac TSUNAMI, not a failure of a nuclear plant), in 2011.

NOTE: 

Merkel was the major instigator of NORDSTREAM 2, a set of pipelines directly from Russia to Germany, which was added to the 10-y-old NORDSTREAM 1 set of pipes.

Together, they could transmit 110 BILLION CUBIC METER PER YEAR.

Only NORDSTREAM 1 is in operation, but at only 20% of capacity.

Russia is converting much of that gas to LNG and shipping it to China, India and other East Asian countries, AT A DISCOUNT.

Natural gas wholesale pricing, Dutch TTF, increased by about a factor of 5 in Europe, to $221/MWh = $65/million Btu, on August 15, 2022, due to sanctions backfiring; a MWh = 3.412 million Btu

Natural gas wholesale pricing increased by about a factor of 3 in the US, to $9/million Btu, on August 15, 2022, due to Biden exporting our oil and gas and coal.

The stupidity of it all is off-the-charts.

The current Scholtz government is only now reconsidering that disastrous Merkel course.

Brussels, in desperation, is FINALLY SEEING THE LIGHT AS WELL

Brussels has declared natural gas and nuclear RENEWABLE, over the objections of Germany.

THE US SHOULD DO THE SAME, ASAP, TO SAVE THE US ECONOMY AND THE US PEOPLE, A LOT OF VERY EXPENSIVE GRIEF.

The result of this green transition?

Germany’s economy is teetering on the brink of ruin, and officials are concerned about social upheaval and widespread unrest if things really take a turn for the worst this winter.

And they very well could… but why should Americans worry?

Besides the obvious economic and geopolitical fallout, it bears reminding that despite Europe’s blunders, many on the US political left, the Dem/Progs, still see Germany as a model state, regarding climate policies.

Europe has long been a bellwether for where the American Dem/Prog left is headed, whether for socialized medicine, or the Green New Deal.

Indeed, the Biden administration joined Europe in committing to the laughable goal of “net zero” emissions in the coming decades.

It turns out, “net zero” really refers to what will be left in your bank account as energy prices skyrocket.

While gasoline prices have come down, they’re still unnecessarily high, thanks to

1) Biden teleprompter controllers' war on fossil fuels, and

2) Exporting our coal, oil, and natural gas, which caused shortages and high prices in the US.

Despite the half-hearted pro-oil production rhetoric, there’s zero indication the teleprompter controllers will substantively change course regarding implementing climate policies similar to the ones that enthralled Europe to Russia.

Except in our case, we won’t become Russian serfs.

Instead, we’ll become dependent on the Chinese Communist Party for the critical minerals to power the Dem/Prog, vote-gettin, “green revolution".

China’s malfeasance/negligence brought about a MULTI-$TRILLION, COVID lockdown in the US, which was paid for by money printing, aka, "expansion of the money supply", by the US Federal Reserve System.

It would be a massive, unforced error to let that happen again.