- Jun 6, 2007
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Members of Congress should be rallying the nation to help Europe from the Russian government's weaponization of natural gas. This week the Russian government decreased the flow of natural gas going to Germany to 20% of the supply pipeline, Nord stream 1, capacity. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine war began Russia has reduced natural gas supplies to around a dozen European countries, the whole sale price of natural gas has tripled in this time, some businesses in Germany are paying ten times the price for natural gas compared to what they did before the war began. This attack on Europe's economy by Russian President Valdimir Putin by cutting natural gas shipments below Europe's needs unless Europe is rescued will send Europe into a severe recession, which Europe will not easily recover from because many countries in Europe have fundamentally weak economies they do not have sufficient industries strong enough to support their population sizes. This is not only a terrible development because it causes hardship to our good allies the Europeans but it also leaves them dramatically economically weaker to increase military spending to deter Vladimir Putin
from continuing and expanding his Russian aggression in Europe which due to our Nato Treaty obligation will pull America into a war with Russia once Russia invades a Nato country!
Members of Congress should be in the media and in their meetings in Congress advocating loudly for America rescuing Europe from Russia cutting off dramatically the supply of natural gas to Europe. Congress should be demanding that the Federal governments emergency powers and the defense production act be used to cut natural gas consumption in the power generation industry for the indefinite future mandate that coal and gasoline power generation be used with higher priority and the natural gas saved be turned into LNG and be shipped to Europe. Go to other industries that use a lot of natural gas like the fertilizer production industry and cut consumption there help farmers bring on-line more arable land that can be used for farming and mandate the reduction of use of such fertilizers. Of course fairly compensate the injured businesses. The federal Government should be doing more to the bring the Freeport TX Liquified Natural Gas export terminal back on line from the fire that occurred in June; first could utilization of the Defense Production Act bring about the export terminal being brought back "fully" on line quicker, secondly, the regulatory hurdles associated with safety can all that work be done more expeditiously (the fire was a result of a broken valve - if there was no fire would such a comprehensive safety check take place can the safety check be limited to areas just where the damage to the terminal complex took place). In all likelihood this emergency posture to help Europe will only need to last a year or two because Europe and America are aggressively trying to wean themselves off of natural gas consumption with renewable energy programs.
Red flags about limits to LNG import capacity for Europe seem like a red herring! Germany is building LNG import terminals by years end and they are bringing on line floating import terminals. After 2014 when Russia took Crimea from Ukraine and engineered the Separatist takeover in the east of Ukraine, Europe made its natural gas pipelines more interconnected to reduce Russia use of natural gas as a tool for extortion so Europe should be set-up to receive needed supplies of natural gas from America. Further, by the time U.S. government emergency action take effect the resulting natural gas will not be arriving at Europe's door until November of this year so accepting this gas from America by Europe shouldn't be a problem! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to recognize that it is America's compelling interests to provide great relief to Europe to address this natural gas war that Russian's Vladimir Putin has embarked on against Europe!
from continuing and expanding his Russian aggression in Europe which due to our Nato Treaty obligation will pull America into a war with Russia once Russia invades a Nato country!
Members of Congress should be in the media and in their meetings in Congress advocating loudly for America rescuing Europe from Russia cutting off dramatically the supply of natural gas to Europe. Congress should be demanding that the Federal governments emergency powers and the defense production act be used to cut natural gas consumption in the power generation industry for the indefinite future mandate that coal and gasoline power generation be used with higher priority and the natural gas saved be turned into LNG and be shipped to Europe. Go to other industries that use a lot of natural gas like the fertilizer production industry and cut consumption there help farmers bring on-line more arable land that can be used for farming and mandate the reduction of use of such fertilizers. Of course fairly compensate the injured businesses. The federal Government should be doing more to the bring the Freeport TX Liquified Natural Gas export terminal back on line from the fire that occurred in June; first could utilization of the Defense Production Act bring about the export terminal being brought back "fully" on line quicker, secondly, the regulatory hurdles associated with safety can all that work be done more expeditiously (the fire was a result of a broken valve - if there was no fire would such a comprehensive safety check take place can the safety check be limited to areas just where the damage to the terminal complex took place). In all likelihood this emergency posture to help Europe will only need to last a year or two because Europe and America are aggressively trying to wean themselves off of natural gas consumption with renewable energy programs.
Red flags about limits to LNG import capacity for Europe seem like a red herring! Germany is building LNG import terminals by years end and they are bringing on line floating import terminals. After 2014 when Russia took Crimea from Ukraine and engineered the Separatist takeover in the east of Ukraine, Europe made its natural gas pipelines more interconnected to reduce Russia use of natural gas as a tool for extortion so Europe should be set-up to receive needed supplies of natural gas from America. Further, by the time U.S. government emergency action take effect the resulting natural gas will not be arriving at Europe's door until November of this year so accepting this gas from America by Europe shouldn't be a problem! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to recognize that it is America's compelling interests to provide great relief to Europe to address this natural gas war that Russian's Vladimir Putin has embarked on against Europe!
