EU Goes Ballistic As Russia Passes On Gas

Joe was going to break Russia with economic war for invading Ukraine? But it’s Germany who’s bailing out energy suppliers deprived of Russian gas & France goes nuclear as well as “nationalizes” its industry ala USSR.

That’s right. The WSJ reports Germany’s “government, companies and households are bracing for [fall & winter] shortages amid expectations that Moscow will cut its already throttled supply” further and in retaliation for pulling back itself on Russian natural gas imports thanks to Biden’s insistence. “Bracing” isn’t quite the right word for the “drastic” measures being considered in the EU as energy prices may go up “six times” what they were a year ago and a deep recession on the continent now seems inevitable. Besides government subsidies to energy companies to fight off bankruptcy, e.g., Germany is looking into rationing gas to industry and hot water to households. The nationalization of Russian-owned energy assets in Germany is also on the table.

Meanwhile, France says it is fully nationalizing energy giant EDF (already 84% controlled by the state) to combat its own energy crisis & “manage the nation’s transition away from fossil fuels.” I’ll bet. Another brilliant progressive move? As the WSJ notes, President Macron had already imposed a cap aka price controls on electricity prices, which only “forced EDF to buy supplies at higher market prices without passing the cost on to consumers,” i.e., until folks get their inevitable tax hikes to keep the nationalized utility afloat. Ironically, Mr. Macron is hoping a renewed dependence on NUCLEAR ENERGY will eventually bail everyone out. If only Joe would-could go nuclear?

Davd Soul