Germany has fired up dormant coal energy plants in response to the European natural gas crisis. CNBC. Germany gets much of it's power from burning natural gas, but in response to Russia restricting supplies and various sanctions, Germany will have to switch to coal. Germany wants to conserve gas supplies because European homes are reliant on natural gas to heat homes. The hope is that Germany will be able to store enough natural gas this summer to survive fall and winter. Russia has been threatening to cut of European gas supplies in response to sanctions against them. Europe gets 40% of their gas via pipelines with Russia.
My Comment:
What is the most shocking thing to me is that Germany turned to coal plants instead of their nuclear power plants. Those power plants do not pollute anywhere near the amount that coal plants do, but Germany bafflingly shut them down in response to the Fukushima disaster in 2011.
Those nuclear plant would be a much better option for Germany if they wanted to save gas supplies. But they won't do it because they somehow think that it's a worse option? It makes zero sense and it seems extremely hypocritical on the German's part.
I do think that Germany needs to prepare for this winter and do it soon. They will need all the fuel they can get to heat homes in winter. Even a mild winter can be deadly if you don't have heat and not being able to heat homes can cause major problems like frozen pipes and other damage.
I also don't think that the German people would tolerate a government that can't even properly heat their homes. People will tolerate a lot but they won't stand for cold homes in winter. They will try and replace their government by any means necessary if people start dying.
Russia is in a very strong position here. They can afford to lose whatever profit they lose from cutting off gas supplies and by doing so they are bringing Europe to their knees. Russia has suffered a bit from sanctions but their effect has been crippling to Europe. All they have to do is wait until winter and European governments will likely be begging for Russian natural gas.
Of course the whole thing is moot if the facts on the ground in Ukraine change. If Russia manages to defeat Ukraine militarily or manage a diplomatic solution than the situation becomes even more dire for Europe. Some people support these sanctions because they, somewhat foolishly, believe that they are helping the Ukrainians. If that is no longer in play than there really isn't a purpose to keep these sanctions other than spite.
On the other hand Russia honestly doesn't really have a reason to let up on punishing Europe. Like I said, a winter without heat will do massive damage to European governments and whatever replaces them might be more hostile to NATO or less hostile to Russia. I guess it could backfire on them and they get a much more nationalistic and anti-Russia government as well, which is especially relevant in Germany.
Regardless though, all of Europe basically depends on their government getting this energy crisis figured out. Germany is going to try and solve it with coal and I don't know if that will work or not. If it doesn't than Germany is going to be screwed and the government may fall.
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