The Lights Are Dim .. The Heat Is Off .. The Shops Are Closed

I wish you weren’t correct. But I’m afraid you are utterly so.

 

Habeck was completely talking around the hot mush.

Such a brainwashed answer. It camt be worse.
I have the feeling that the western states discalculated themselves when they put the sanctions on putin. They cut in our own flesh.
Has anybody heard, that these so called HARD sanctions really damaged the russian economy? I havent heard that.
In media they talk every day about how week the russian industry is, that they soon wont have ammo to fire in Ukraine. We hear this since almost half a year. But somehow they keep on fighting and dont seem to get weaker.

Well in war the first thing that dies is the truth, as we all know, (I personally dont trust both sides.) and disinformation and propaganda is one of the most important things that have to be done.

For me it seems we lost this economic war.
It started in last November when you remember.
Russia set the gas prices high and we had a shortage of Adblue. Shortly after the downregulation of the prices the war began.

 

Just drove 700 miles around the UK on a trip in my EV and had no problems at all, despite all the issues with the dysfunctional energy market in the UK. Being an island nation we are lucky enough to have an extremely reliable offshore wind turbine system and much of the time renewables deliver 50% of our power requirements. Our problem is not power generation but the energy market which is about 60 years out-of-date such that the price of renewable electricity is ridiculously linked directly to the price of unreliable gas supplies.

 

I certainly believe you. But this description makes the condition in Europe even MORE insane.

If I read your words correctly, there’s plenty of energy. But “just because” governments will ruin their economies.

“There’s a lot of power Mrs. Windsor, but unfortunately I have to charge you so much that I’m putting you out of business. “

While I believe you, something does not add up. It’s supply and demand. Close a bunch of nuke plants. Piss off your natural gas supplier. = less supply. = higher prices.

Where are you guys sending all of this plentiful energy?

 

Everything that the UK government is considering amounts to the state giving taxpayer's money to the energy companies to sustain their already extraordinary profits.
It will neither help ordinary citizens to keep warm nor to keep what little wealth they have.

Conservatism [noun]: The transfer of wealth from the poor to the already wealthy.

 

I agree it is ridiculous. The companies which supply to consumers are privately owned and operate under market contract rules which largely derive from the days of plentiful North Sea oil and gas (the 1970s and 1980s). Since those days the UK produces a small fraction of gas from what it did then, and a significant part of our gas now comes from Norway, with a trivial amount from Russia. The Norwegian gas currently contracted is unaffected by Ukraine and there is no problem with actually getting hold of the gas. Electricity comes from renewables, gas fired power stations and nuclear, with some imported across the Channel from France at times of high demand. The problem is the old contracts. The companies supplying consumers charge the market price to consumers: electricity which is cheap to produce is linked to the price of gas and gas itself to the current market price of gas which is sky high. Basically the price being charged to consumers does not reflect the much lower price/cost of generation. There has been talk in the last few days of the Govt at last reforming the market contracts and in particular decoupling the cheap renewables electricity from any relationship with gas; to do this they plan to offer longterm new contracts to the energy companies to get them to switch from the old dysfunctional contracts.

 

It’s truly fascinating. I REALLY appreciate this extra insight.

How do you see the impacts of Germany shutting down much of its nuclear powered generation?

 

There are discussions to lengthen the use of the last remaining 3 nuclear power plants over the end of 2022 until March 2023 but not extending the energy amount which shall be delivered.
Normally they would have been shut down end of this year.

 

The reason why Europe choose natural gas from Russia over gas from other sources was greed.

It made it possible to maximize profits and use it without thinking of alternatives to make energy consuming processes more efficient.

It is the same greed which lead all industries to place their production processes into countries which have lesser workers rights, less environmental regulations and so on.

And we the consumers support all this by buying this crap.

When was the last time you have bought food or clothes which were produced by a fair trade when you had the choice?

Now when gas prices have skyrocketed, which by the way is not due to a lack of gas, even now when Russia had stopped its delivery, it is just the rules of the so called market. Or the expectations of the market.

Gas power plants in Germany are used for electricity and heating or as quick response power plants for grid regulating purposes.

This latter was the reason for coupling the electricity prices to gas, which was by the way, always the most expensive primary energy supplier.

Grid regulation is essential to prevent blackouts. As far as I have seen this happens more often in the US than in Europe.

Solar and wind electricity was even more expensive in the first days but this changed

Now where the gas price is a political figure this mechanism does dot make any more sense.

But nobody wants to change that because now solar, water and wind power plants make profit like hell.

Greed, nothing more.

 

The boss of Ecotricity in the UK who generate all green electricity, mostly from wind, has to be fair, many times recently called for the market to be reformed, and electricity to be decoupled from gas. That would mean much lower profits for his company but still more than adequate.

 

It’ll work! Problem solved. Shower In groups! Oh, wait a minute, they tried that back in World War II.....

(And for any overly sensitive types, that was strictly an anti totalitarian dig. Not a national or ethnic one).

 

Wow! I can’t even begin to comprehend the ramifications of this. And no one will convince me this was an accident. And we can’t blame Russia. Why damage your own pipe when you control the valve?

 

The water depth is 50-100 meters (164 ft - 328 ft). This is beyond recreational diving limits, but not technical diving limits, without using submersible. SEAL teams are trained and equipped for this task, but that doesn't mean they did it. I did a 50 m dive, with a 5-10 minute bottom time though I only had a recreational certification. An underwater submersible would be advisable. The nearby island would provide a good staging area. Looks like lots of farmland, at least green areas.

We are already in WWIII, economically, and inching closer to full physical war daily. US is trying to break Russia's back, again, as we did at the end of the cold war. There is no such thing as a limited nuclear war when both (many) sides have them.

 

I appreciate the added perspective. I think we all smell a rat on this pipeline “accident”.

Who do you guys thinks benefits from this? Who suffers? Those may seem silly questions. But false flags are flying.

 

My GUESS is Russia did it because the US threatened to do it.

Russia has access through their satellite countries, using a submersible.

Wasn't the EU going to ban Russian imports soon?

Sept 6 2022: Europe is loading up on Russian oil 3 months before an import ban is set to kick in amid EU's energy crisis

The EU needs all the natural gas it can get before winter, Russia has already made a lot of money because of the increase in prices.

When people get cold this winter, they may/will blame the US. Russia wins the propaganda war!

 

To me it appears the west did this as an attempt to ramp up hostilities towards Russia. The “actors” believing that the “simple” people will “Blame Putin”. But I say Putin has no interest in destroying his ability to taunt Germany via natural gas. All he has to do is close the valve at his end.

My initial take: Germany or USA did it.