Guest essay by Larry Hamlin

The excellent WattsUpWithThat? article presenting the energy challenges pitting U.S. and Russia’s global dominance in natural gas production thus setting the stage for international business export customer competition also exposes another global energy dilemma brought about by the ill-considered, ludicrous and scientifically unjustified climate alarmist policies of the EU.

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Europe’s dominating and impractical green energy policies combined with their anti-nuclear, anti-coal (even though coal continues to dominate electrical energy production because of renewable energy failures), anti-shale, etc. positions have resulted in the EU and its economy becoming a prisoner of and incredibly dependent upon foreign energy providers and unable to establish control of their own energy and economic destiny.

At the present time Germany, the economic driving engine of the EU, has become dependent on Russian supplied natural gas and this dependence is set to grow even more so in the future.

Germany is heavily lobbying for the building of a 10 billion euro second major natural gas pipeline, known as the Nord Stream 2, to significantly increase the amount of Russian natural gas that can be imported directly from Siberia.

Germany already receives about 40% of the gas it consumes from Russia and this figure will likely increase to over 50% by 2025.

Other EU countries have concerns about the new Russian/German pipeline because of the increased energy dependence upon Russia that such a pipeline would create for the EU.

Some EU countries are also concerned about the increased hub role that Germany would need to play in distributing natural gas to other EU nations because of the increased pipeline imports.

Additionally some segments of the route for the proposed pipeline lie outside the jurisdiction of the EU raising uncertain legal concerns.

The newly created sanctions the U.S. has assessed against Russia are also creating uncertainty for the EU regarding the building and use of the new proposed pipeline.

It is extraordinary that here in the U.S. there is so much hype from the mainstream media about alleged government ties to Russia at a time where America has established itself as a global energy giant and in complete control of its economic and energy future.

At the same time the EU has, because of its ridiculous climate alarmist folly, allowed its economic and energy future to become a prisoner of energy policy dictated by foreign governments – most prominently the Russian government.

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