Friday, May 27, 2022

"Germany to Bring Back Coal [and oil!] Power Plants If Russia Cuts Gas"

From Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance, May 24:

Germany plans to bring back coal- and oil-fired power plants should Russia cut off natural gas shipments to Europe’s largest economy.

https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/xk7MRmgLILR_9QQFM0t.OQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTYzOTtjZj13ZWJw/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/3ngcfAhR0jX_qL0YYyIc3Q--~B/aD04NjI7dz0xMjk2O2FwcGlkPXl0YWNoeW9u/https://media.zenfs.com/en/bloomberg_markets_842/090cc205730a0f55ba2f7ce096aebe5a

Economy Minister Robert Habeck will on Tuesday present an emergency decree enabling the government to bring back the facilities in case of gas shortages, according to the proposed legislation seen by Bloomberg.

Germany is resorting to desperate measures to keep the lights on and its massive industrial parks running, turning to dirty fuels even if that means a surge in carbon emissions. The nation has almost six gigawatts of facilities that are currently part of a national reserve, many of which were supposed to be closed down as part of the coal phase-out plan.

“This request for additional coal-fired power generation only occurs when there is a gas shortage, or if there is a threat of a gas shortage and the gas consumption in power generation has to be reduced,” according to the proposed law.

The decision comes even as Habeck’s Greens -- part of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s so-called traffic light coalition -- want to bring forward to 2030. The coal-phase out was initially planned for eight years later.....

....MUCH MORE

I think I see the problem. Chancellor Merkel's advisors were idiots. 

They were warned, over and over again, especially fervent were the Polish geostrategists, but nein, they go their own way.

Here's one of the warnings from 2018:

Natural Gas: "Polish PM: Nord Stream II Would Make Russia Free to act Against Ukraine, So Must Not be Built"

Someone should check in with Victoria "Fuck the EU" Nuland to see what the plan to follow-up on the 2014 regime change in Ukraine was.
Because, despite the fact their first concern is their own energy security, the Poles do have a point regarding their frenemy Ukraine, things could get a bit chaotic for Kyiv if Nord Stream 2 is completed as planned.

Maybe the Ukraine follow-up plan is mixed in the same stack as the follow-up for the "We came, we saw, he died" Libya plan.

Here are three stories on some aspects of the current state of play in Eastern European energy geopolitics....

Prescient. And that's just the intro.

2019
"First American LNG Shipment for Ukraine Arrives at Polish Port"
Poland has been trying to warn the rest of Europe of the risks in getting too dependent on Russian gas, in particular via the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.  
 
And one from 2016:
New Russian Pipeline In Baltic Sea Could 'Collapse' Ukraine

I'm not sure what it is about the Poles but they seem wary of their neighbors

"Berlin, Moscow Negotiate New Trade Accord".
-Reading Eagle
Feb. 12, 1940 
 
There are a couple dozen more if the reader is interested in the history