By Brian C. Joondeph
“Here Comes the Sun” is one of the Beatles’ great hits from their Abbey Road album, written by George Harrison at the country house of his friend Eric Clapton. Those were down days for George, and one of the song lines, “Little darlin’, it’s been a long, cold, lonely winter” might apply as much to George’s life in 1969 England as it will collectively to the upcoming winter in Europe.
The sun is shining these days as it is still summer in the Northern Hemisphere, but not for long. News stories abound for those paying attention. From Euronews, “European governments are scrambling to find ways to shield households and businesses feeling the impact of the surge in energy prices that have soared to record highs.”
Oilprice.com weighed in as well,
In a somber speech last week, French President Emmanuel Macron warned that France has come to the end of its “era of abundance” and said hard times are ahead.
The Prime Minister of Belgium has said that Europe will have five difficult winters in the coming years due to an energy shortage with no short-term solution
While European gas storage is filling up ahead of schedule and it may be able to survive the coming winter, the suffering is far from over for the continent.
The White House has taken notice, yet despite their so-called focus and efforts to alleviate this mess, they have rammed through their “green new deal,” ironically called the “Inflation Reduction Act”, which will only make things worse.
“We’re concerned about potential energy shortages in Europe as the winter approaches,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Monday. “This is something we’re going to stay focused on as the fall turns to winter, and we’ll be latched up with allies and partners to try to do what we can to alleviate any shortages coming through.”
Europe is paying the price for their leaders listening to climate scolds including Al Gore, Prince Charles, and the petulant Swedish teen Greta Thunberg. Trying to outwoke each other, Europe made the decision to “go green”, thinking they could redefine the laws of physics and nature.
What followed was predictable. As Fox Business reported,
Experts blame green energy policies for Europe’s full-scale energy crisis: ‘A warning to the US’
‘There’s been under-investment in fossil fuels in Europe,’ an analyst from research firm Rystad Energy tells FOX Business
Elon Musk was blunter in his assessment saying, “Civilization will crumble” without oil and gas. Is the “crumbling civilization” a bug or a feature of the West’s green energy push?
Now we have Germans collecting firewood to heat their homes, much as they did centuries ago. And Poles waiting on days long lines for coal for necessary heat during the chilly upcoming winter. Elderly Poles might recall stories from their grandparents doing this a hundred years ago. It seems that what was old is now new. Europe is not jumping into the future but sliding into the abyss of the past.
Germany, following energy guidance from Greta and Prince Charles, decided to ditch clean and reliable nuclear energy in favor of polluting the air by burning firewood. That’s what passes for environmental progress these days. The US Office of Nuclear Energy correctly notes,
Nuclear energy protects air quality. Nuclear is a zero-emission clean energy source. Nuclear energy’s land footprint is small.
Despite producing massive amounts of carbon-free power, nuclear energy produces more electricity on less land than any other clean-air source.
Nuclear energy produces minimal waste. Nuclear fuel is extremely dense.
In its effort to go green, Germany is ditching clean nuclear energy in favor of a dirtier alternative, firewood. But realizing the folly of their ways as well as their dependence on Russian energy, they are rethinking their original plan to shutter all of their nuclear power plants and are considering keeping three plants on line, rather than closing them at the end of this year as planned. The thought of “a long cold lonely winter” is waking the woke German leadership.
Sanctions against Russian energy over the Ukraine war aren’t helping matters. Russia is laughing all the way to the bank, with myriad other customers for her massive energy resources, while Europe is paving the way to a long cold lonely winter.
If Europeans want to escape to a warmer locale during their chilly winter, even that will cost more. Bloomberg reported, “Aviation fuel prices rising more than twice as fast as oil. Russia’s gas curbs have contributed to scarcity of jet fuel.” It seems those Russian sanctions imposed by the virtue signaling West are only hurting the West and not Russia.
President Trump warned the Germans of their folly of energy policy in a UN speech four years ago. As Tucker Carlson reviewed in a recent monologue, Trump cautioned, “Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy if it does not immediately change course.” The German delegation laughed at the orange haired rube, but come winter, they may be shivering rather than laughing.
Will America observe and learn from European folly or follow the same energy foolish path? In my state of Colorado, we are following the latter pathway.
22,000 Colorado homes lost control of their thermostats last week as Denver 7 News reported,
During the dog days of summer, it’s important to keep your home cool. But when thousands of Xcel customers in Colorado tried adjusting their thermostats Tuesday, they learned they had no control over the temperatures in their own homes.
This wasn’t a price hike in one’s electricity bill but the electric utility simply turning off the air conditioning during the 90-degree day citing an “energy emergency”. Should Europe and America expect more of the same during the last days of summer and again in winter? What if Coloradans lose control of their thermostats during a 10-degree winter day? What can go wrong when the government controls energy?
Summer heat is annoying, but winter cold is deadly. A study published in The Lancet found, “Cold weather is 20 times as deadly as hot weather.” This report reinforced up a U.S. study from the National Center for Health Statistics, which found that, “cold kills more than twice as many Americans as heat.”
Do we have idiots in charge or is this part of a coordinated effort toward a “great reset”?
These two Newsweek headlines suggest idiocy. On August 25, “As California bans new gas car sales by 2035, which states could be next?” Six days later, on August 31, Newsweek, without a bit of irony, ran this headline, “Californians told not to charge electric cars days after gas car sales ban.”
California currently has 18 million registered automobiles, with 13 percent plug in electric. California can’t charge 2 million of its cars during hot or cold weather. How will this work when there are 18 or 20 million electric vehicles? Will the media ask? Will Democrats answer?
While Europe and other developed countries tilt at windmills, everyone should bundle up and collect firewood as they prepare for a long cold lonely winter.