Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Any hope for an outbreak of energy policy sanity amongst EU leaders is rapidly fading, as they unveil their innumerate plan to replace dependence on Russian imports.

Climate change: EU unveils plan to end reliance on Russian gas

By Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent

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But moving with a speed few thought possible, the EU has now laid out a strategy that could cut reliance on this fuel source by two thirds within a year.

The REPowerEU plan aims to make Europe independent of Russian fossil fuels by 2030, but the initial efforts focus solely on gas.

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Discussions are ongoing with existing gas suppliers including Norway, Algeria and Azerbaijan to boost flows. 

The plan envisages ending reliance on all Russian fossil fuels “well before” 2030.

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The EU also proposes a massive ramping up of renewables, biogas and hydrogen.

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But with Germany announcing plans for two new LNG terminals to increase supplies, some experts are worried that this could increase longer term dependency on fossil fuels.

“I think we’re living in a tricky time, that there’s so much political pressure to make these energy policy decisions,” said Prof Paula Kivimaa from the Finnish Environment Institute and the University of Sussex.

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Any switch to coal would also rapidly boost carbon emissions, a trend that’s already well underway. 

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The Commission document also says that renewable energy projects must be fast tracked and says there is huge potential in domestic rooftop solar power. 

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Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-60664799

Rooftop solar? in Europe? Northern Europe especially barely sees the sun in winter, when they need extra energy for heating, and even in Summer the sun is fairly low in the sky.

This EU energy plan makes so little sense, it reinforces my opinion that the real agenda is to hope Russia conquers and crushes Ukrainian partisans, so Europe can go back to business as usual, buying energy from Russia.

Germany in my opinion has been particularly obvious, first by blocking NATO heavy weapons from reaching the Ukraine in the leadup to the war, then by making a further mockery of support, offering “support” in the form of dysfunctional Soviet relic weapons which have been in storage since the fall of East Germany.

President Biden just vetoed Poland supplying fighter jets to the Ukraine.

It all kind of paints a picture, doesn’t it?

via Watts Up With That?

March 9, 2022

EU Russian Energy Plan: Gas Storage and Rooftop Solar Energy