There are solutions, just unpopular and require a political class that is not fickle and weak. Solution #1. Capitulate to Putin and treat Russia as a regional power that can gobble and punish its neighbors when they stray too far. Solution #2. Forget about the climate for the next 5 years, turn on all coal, nuclear powerplants. Solution #3. Put the Euro printer in overdrive and pay whatever price needed for the littl…
Solution #1 - we already tried that, we gave Putin Crimea in 2014, everything was chill for 7-8 years and now we have this mess. If we give him Donetsk and Luhansk, he'll just be back for more + Moldova in 5-6 years.
If we just went based on the political message in the past then Germany could just use that massive amount of solar and wind they have been subsidizing for the last few decades, and for heating they could simply use that green hydrogen. Both of those were supposed to be both cheaper than any other for of energy.
More realistically, this is a time where most countries in EU should be scrambling to throw money at new energy projects and energy modernization. That should help with both the energy crisis long term, and focusing money on internal infrastructure seems to have good track records for reducing inflation. Reducing imports dependency from Russia, especially in a different currency, should strengthen the euro.
I'm not recommending to have a nuclear war over who gets to collect vodka taxes in some East European town. I am pointing out that these people let moral foreign policy run their entire trade block and foreign policy choices, and not a cold rational calculus of any kind. All the self-sanctions have come to nothing: they have not and will not materially affect the end result of the war. They've made me, as a citizen i…
Who is to say Russia will stop at Ukraine? They clearly weren't satisfied with Crimea. Is Poland safe? Is Germany? I don't mean to be alarmist but we've seen similar scenarios play out in Europe before. This isn't merely about what's morally correct, it's also about self-interest.
The sanctions do nothing to stop this. They're not acting like they're a marketing firm that gets shocked because of some red in the GDP, they're on a war footing. That will only react to, you guessed it, equal force (war).
There are so many people who want to see ordinary Germans suffer for decisions their government made. Do you think the pensioners who will freeze are the ones who decided on energy policy?
Are you saying that Germany is not a democracy?
The party who was supposed to be against abolishing our nuclear plants, the conservative CDU and the liberal FDP, actually abolished them.
So, kinda? No matter who we elected at that time, nobody would have kept them.
Related content "Trump: Germany 'Totally Controlled By Russia'" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LLZBVTid4I German bureaucrats laugh at Trump after he says the country could become totally dependent on Russian energy: https://twitter.com/marcusgilmer/status/1044604107997237249
What's the explanation for this?
I mean, surely the explanation isn't that Trump is secretly a well informed and thoughtful person?
To get some perspective why this is such a hotly debated topic - just got my heating bill for the last year - just a small 2 person flat in a small town - most flats in Germany are heated by gas one way or another - 700€/year with 5.2ct/kWh for 2021 - current market is more like 15ct/kWh and will probably rise. With the rise in rent prices in the last years this could push quite a bit of poor / lower middle class peo…
Serious question here - I swear I'm not trolling and I've been asking myself this same question...' Would you be fine with it if you were on the margin? I have this same attitude about inflation in the US and rising interest rates. Good - we need to get the situation under control. But I'm not living on the margin. It affects me, but not really. I'll be fine. So I don't really have any skin in the game here. Not yet.
Long-term vs. short-term thinking.
Would you rather be colder in the winter for a couple years or live in a warzone and have your family killed and culture destroyed?
To get some perspective why this is such a hotly debated topic - just got my heating bill for the last year - just a small 2 person flat in a small town - most flats in Germany are heated by gas one way or another - 700€/year with 5.2ct/kWh for 2021 - current market is more like 15ct/kWh and will probably rise. With the rise in rent prices in the last years this could push quite a bit of poor / lower middle class peo…
Serious question here - I swear I'm not trolling and I've been asking myself this same question...' Would you be fine with it if you were on the margin? I have this same attitude about inflation in the US and rising interest rates. Good - we need to get the situation under control. But I'm not living on the margin. It affects me, but not really. I'll be fine. So I don't really have any skin in the game here. Not yet.
I don’t understand how any country could ask people on the margin to shoulder the worst effects of a burden that effects everyone, without offering support. During the early part of covid, we offered hazard pay for “front line workers”, and monthly support cheques for people who’s jobs were put on hold to keep people safe (restaurants, event venues, performers, etc). That didn’t last long, but it’s clearly the kind of mindset we need to tackle climate transitions - i.e. pay oil field workers to retrain for solar and wind, help support people who can’t afford to get off fracked methane gas heating yet. Etc.
https://www.rolls-royce.com/innovation/small-modular-reactor... I'm on the fence about an all electric future- we simply don't have the grid capacity in most parts of the world - but the Germans and French who control the EU should have been developing SMNR years ago. They are now in an energy checkmate situation with a hostile country with an economy the size of Italy. Not clever,
This is why I think the more likely future is for each house to have their own electricity generator (solar panels?) and batteries to store the energy.
The capex to do that was unreachable for the vast majority of the population, even when money was ‘cheap’.
There are solutions, just unpopular and require a political class that is not fickle and weak. Solution #1. Capitulate to Putin and treat Russia as a regional power that can gobble and punish its neighbors when they stray too far. Solution #2. Forget about the climate for the next 5 years, turn on all coal, nuclear powerplants. Solution #3. Put the Euro printer in overdrive and pay whatever price needed for the littl…
3 doesn't work because no amount of money solves the supply shortage in the near term.
Related content "Trump: Germany 'Totally Controlled By Russia'" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LLZBVTid4I German bureaucrats laugh at Trump after he says the country could become totally dependent on Russian energy: https://twitter.com/marcusgilmer/status/1044604107997237249
I generally despise Trump, but here he looks like a visionary and the German diplomats look like morons (in hindsight, at least).