Trillions in climate spending and Europe is farther than ever from energy security and yet climate change still remains at the top of the agenda.
Oil Price (3/3/24) reports: "The energy crisis that engulfed Europe after Western sanctions punished Russia’s invasion of Ukraine cost the continent hundreds of billions of dollars. Now, the Middle East crisis and the Houthi war on the Red Sea could threaten future energy supplies. While climate change remains at the top of the agenda, the immediate name of the game is “energy security”, and that has opened up enormous opportunities for investors on both sides of the divide. At the height of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, European countries were even forced to return to coal burning. While that has since declined, with climate change returning to the top of the agenda, natural gas has regained status as the only viable bridge to a green energy transition.
In early February, Germany earmarked $16 billion for the construction of four natural gas power plants to complement a renewable energy expansion push. And Austria has recently made its largest natural gas discovery in four decades—enough to increase its domestic production by 50%. In the meantime, Germany—the EU’s largest economy—has been creating a new dependency on American LNG. In fact, according to McKinsey, 'Europe has come to shape global gas markets, with European hub prices setting global LNG spot prices.' That false sense of security is also being threatened by the Biden administration’s recent pause on new LNG projects. But one thing is clear: Natural gas is back in fashion in Europe, and domestic sources in combination with renewable energy are the only true answer to energy security."
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"As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. By the same token, the Administration is finding that it can offer Americans EV tax credits, but it can’t make them buy the vehicles."
– Diana Furchtgott-Roth,
Heritage Foundation
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