You may be surprised to learn that Russian natural gas is still flowing to Europe across Ukraine. Kyiv lets it happen, and even the pipeline at Sudzha in Kursk captured in the recent offensive will remain unmolested. "Even after 2 1/2 years of war and repeated rounds of sanctions, Russian natural gas keeps flowing through Ukraine’s pipeline network to customers in Europe. That hasn’t changed despite Ukraine apparently taking control of a gas measuring station near the Russian town of Sudzha as part of Kyiv’s push into Russia’s Kursk region."
The problem is that Europe needs energy and is willing to pay for it. "Natural gas is used to generate electricity, power industrial processes, and in some cases to heat homes." People like the heat and people like to get paid. Despite the war, "Russian gas was never banned — even though the money earned supports Russia’s state budget and helps prop up the ruble currency. It’s a testimony to how dependent Europe was on Russian energy — and to a lesser extent still is." Of course the sale of Russian gas also pays for the Kremlin's war in Ukraine. The danger of filling Putin's war chest by buying his gas was foreseen even before the war began. "Nord Stream 2 was opposed from the start by the United States, primarily because it would increase German dependence on Russian energy. The United States later imposed sanctions on companies that were involved in the project. The U.S. sanctions were criticized heavily by German politicians as "a serious interference in the internal affairs of Germany and Europe and their sovereignty."
On 6 February 2022, speaking at a joint news conference with German chancellor Olaf Scholz, American president Joe Biden said "If Russia invades … Ukraine again, then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it." When asked how he would do that, he responded, "I promise you, we’ll be able to do it."
That coincidentally happened on September 26, 2022, when the Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines were blown up, rendering three of the four lines inoperable. According to the Wall Street Journal in May of 2022, just after the war had started, a handful of senior Ukrainian military officers and businessmen decided to take down the pipeline after a night of drinking. "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky initially approved the plan, according to one officer who participated and three people familiar with it. But later, when the CIA learned of it and asked the Ukrainian president to pull the plug, he ordered a halt. Zelensky’s commander in chief, Valeriy Zaluzhniy, who was leading the effort, nonetheless forged ahead." So Biden-Harris didn't do it. Berlin is going along with that story. "Germany has issued a European arrest warrant for a Ukrainian diving instructor over his alleged involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea, according to German media." But why didn't Germany blow up or shut down Nord Stream itself if it wanted to stop Russia's invasion in 2022? When Germany shut down its nuclear generation capacity -- because nuclear bad -- it had to replace it with something and painted itself into an energy corner. That something was Russian gas.
Germany is no longer producing any electricity from nuclear power plants ... A collection of esteemed scientists, including two Nobel laureates and professors from the likes of MIT and Columbia, made a last-minute plea in an open letter published on April 14 on the nuclear advocacy group’s website, RePlaneteers, to keep the reactors operating. “In view of the threat that climate change poses to life on our planet and the obvious energy crisis in which Germany and Europe find themselves due to the unavailability of Russian natural gas, we call on you to continue operating the last remaining German nuclear power plants,” the letter states.
We live in a world where in Germany at least, nuclear power is a technology of the past and windmills are the power of the future. Biden makes a big show of preventing the production of oil and gas. It would be good if it worked, but will it? Or does fantasy simply put everyone at the mercy of those, who like Putin, know the cynical facts? Maybe the terrible truth is the world needs oil and gas and really can't replace it for decades. Politicians talk Green because it soothes their Woke voters, but they need oil and gas to keep the lights on. So they compromise by living a lie and funding a war. That's the truth and to paraphrase Hollywood, "You can't handle the truth! You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want that well -- you need the pump!"
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