Italy, Belgium set to lose gas supply after biggest LNG plant bombed

Post by _aavaa_ » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 9:41 AM UTC

Joeri wrote: post #12

wiseowise wrote: post #2

Hope this will be a wake up call for the countries to double down on green/nuclear energy instead of sucking Russian/Middle Eastern tit.

The majority of Belgium’s electricity comes from nuclear, wind and solar. They have been greatly expanding wind parks in the north sea, and they’re in the early stages of deploying SMRs. But the reality is that Belgium still needs a lot of natural gas for electricity production and its large chemical industry, and that all of this gas has to be imported. Long term there is the European hydrogen strategy which aims to…

Post by drysine » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 9:45 AM UTC

woodruffw wrote: post #57

drysine wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like this: "It's not that you refrain from doing something because it will offend Russia. If Russia is doing something that we don't want it to do, we should offend them."[0] And that's coming from a man who said a few minutes earlier: "There is one of the factor here that we seem to be forgetting, and we did, though it was not a legally binding assurance, we gave categorical assurances to Gorbachev, back when the So…

I don’t understand where the arrogance comes in here. I see underhandedness and realpolitik, but those don’t arrogance make. (I’ll also note that it seems very weird to use a pinky promise that the US made with a country that no longer exists as some kind of “gotcha.” You presumably don’t factor the Austro-Hungarian empire’s commitments into your geopolitics.)

Post by usrnm » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 9:45 AM UTC

fsh wrote: post #53

usrnm wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google "Messmer Plan". France built 65 reactors in 15 years as a reaction to the 70s oil crisis, and now the majority of electricity in France comes from nuclear without any significant dependency on fossil fuels. The only thing that we're lacking is political will to change things.

The French energy sector is more than 50% fossil [1]. If France decarbonizes over the next decades, it will be due to renewables, not nuclear. While the government and population have been extremely pro-nuclear for a long time, the economics just don't work out. The current plan is to barely build enough reactors to replace old ones going off-line over the next decades. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Fra…

Post by fsh » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 9:49 AM UTC

usrnm wrote: post #65

fsh wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The French energy sector is more than 50% fossil [1]. If France decarbonizes over the next decades, it will be due to renewables, not nuclear. While the government and population have been extremely pro-nuclear for a long time, the economics just don't work out. The current plan is to barely build enough reactors to replace old ones going off-line over the next decades. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Fra…

That's why I used the word electricity and not energy. It isn't perfect, but still much better than the majority if the world and even Europe. The fact that even the French themselves cannot replicate it anymore speaks volumes about the weakness of the current political system. As a counter example, the Chinese can and do.

Post by usrnm » Sat, Mar 21, 2026, 9:56 AM UTC

fsh wrote: post #67

usrnm wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I used the word electricity and not energy. It isn't perfect, but still much better than the majority if the world and even Europe. The fact that even the French themselves cannot replicate it anymore speaks volumes about the weakness of the current political system. As a counter example, the Chinese can and do.

In 2024, China produced 8 times more electricity from renewables that from nuclear [1], and the renewable share is growing much more quickly. Nuclear is as dead in China as it is elsewhere in the world. [1] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-consumption-by-sou...