Mr Putin's Gas is Heating Things Up

We’ve several times mused over Putin’s gas weapon:  how he’s carefully kept Germany supplied and, in turn, how careful Ukraine has been with the transit pipelines; how ‘green’ ignorance on the critical and frankly irreplaceable role of gas in European economies contributed to the remarkable willingness of European countries to approve swingeing sanctions; how Putin couldn’t believe this degree of ignorance really existed; how on earth Germany might do without their continual fix of Russian gas.

Well now he’s done it: not content with shutting off supplies to non-ruble-compliant buyers in half a dozen ‘lesser’ countries, Putin has now cut back Nord Stream 1, Germany’s only direct import route from Russia, to 40% of capacity, at exactly the time new German laws require that much-depleted gas storage be steadily filled, in order to be full at the start of winter.  The Germans are running around like headless chickens, busily bringing old lignite burners, FFS, back into the powergen fleet.  There isn’t a country in Europe with any coal capacity that isn’t actively trying to maximise it, Greta or no Greta.

The MSM in this country hasn’t really cottoned on yet: hey, it’s a record June heatwave!  Barring some astonishing (and right now, quite unexpected) climbdown by somebody, this makes next winter a perilous time for us all: outright gas shortages in mainland Europe, and unheard-of prices everywhere.  Oil won’t be far behind gas and electricity.

What is the UK government doing?  Tinkering with a couple of coal plants.  What it’s NOT doing is preparing the populace for what’s to come.  Ordinarily, this would be a rather obvious thing to do: at least there’s a very genuine externality to blame, however you define it.  But I guess an ‘optimist’ like Johnson has absolutely no interest in looking forward further than, well, the next shag.  I can’t even guess how this is going to play out, socially or politically.

ND