For a long time, and in no small part due to the actions of Europeans, Russia had Europe right where it wanted. It still does — sort of. Russian gas is indispensable for heating European homes and producing European, especially German, electricity. But this does not mean that adoption of “green” energy for Europe’s electricity generation can solve the current problem.
Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut is only the latest Democrat to present green energy as some kind of answer to European dependency on Russian energy. It is ridiculous to the point of stupid. That would take decades, if it ever happens at all, and we don’t have decades to deal with an 11-day-old invasion.
As we described it earlier this week, the only answer is for us, and for the OPEC countries willing to help us, to flood Europe with oil and liquefied natural gas and to do it as quickly as possible.
In a sense, Americans are very fortunate right now. With his aggression, Vladimir Putin has just created a massive new market for our oil and natural gas exports on a scale that isn’t currently practical. Our oil and gas is the cheapest and most available to Mexicans right now because we have pipelines that go there. Were it not for Putin’s actions, Europeans would find it difficult and expensive to import our natural gas.
On Meet the Press, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that as of now, a ban on Russian fossil fuel imports is on the cards. This is excellent news — mostly because it will harm the Russian war effort, but also because it creates one new area where we can help fix a broken Europe.
Right now, President Joe Biden should issue every possible permit and sell every possible lease so that the U.S. can meet European demand to whatever extent possible. If his party’s far Left objects, he should just point to Ukraine as his justification — it would probably help him, as he would be able to demonstrate some political independence for a change. And it would only be fair to provide some free gas to start with, to sweeten the deal for a medium- to long-term relationship. We should be especially generous with our Polish allies, who are doing so much to shelter refugees this winter.
Of course, the stuff needs to be on a boat yesterday — should he decide to do the right thing, Biden has no time to waste.
Only 11% of new European cars registered in 2020, 1.3 million, were electric. That means it will be decades before the majority of the 292 million registered vehicles in the European Union don’t run on gas or diesel. So Europeans need oil and gasoline. They also need gas to heat their homes and do their cooking. Thank goodness we can provide it and take that much more power away from Russia.
The short-run answer to Putin’s main source of revenue and power is to greenlight permits for as many pipelines and LNG terminals as is humanly possible. The long-run answer includes Germany’s re-adoption of nuclear power (Merkel irrationally abandoned nuclear after Fukushima), to be gradually replaced by nuclear fusion in perhaps 20 to 30 years.
