Hoping Russia's snow dance doesn't work is not a serious energy policy.
Bloomberg (1/6/22) reports: "Russia’s winter defeated Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler. The bitter season has played such a historic role against the nation’s enemies that it now enjoys military rank, popularly known as General Moroz and General Zima (that is, “frost” and “winter”). In the great European natural gas battle of 2021-22, however, the weather has so far worked against Moscow. If President Vladimir Putin was counting on Moroz and Zima, the commanders have yet to show up at the Western front. Mild weather has so far crushed heating demand — and soothed the European market panic about supply that saw natural gas prices shoot up to record highs. In recent days, London, Berlin and Paris have enjoyed a spring-like weather. On New Year’s Eve, the mean temperature in north-west Europe was nearly 12 degrees Celsius, about 9 degrees above the 30-year average. A few cities were even warmer: Zurich and Frankfurt stood at 13 degrees Celsius, compared with a normal level of around freezing for both. For Europe, which imports 40% of its gas from Russia, it has been an economic and geopolitical reprieve...Before the spell of mild winter, Europe was heading into a full-blown crisis: Gas inventories were well-below the 5- and 10-year averages. On Christmas Day, Europe had the equivalent of 629 terawatts hours of gas in storage. If a normal winter ensued, estimated inventories would fall to below 200 TWh by the end of the heating season in late March. "
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"The U.S. is blessed with abundant natural gas and oil. Soaring energy costs for our allies require policies that support – not hinder – the safe and responsible production, transportation, and export of American natural gas."
–Richard D. Kauzlarich,
George Mason University
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