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What we do need is that European politicians wake up and realise that maintaining stable supplies in time of crisis is more important than short-term profits du

by 2000UltraDeluxe 4y ago

What we do need is that European politicians wake up and realise that maintaining stable supplies in time of crisis is more important than short-term profits during relatively good times. Some investments in self-sufficiency are definitely needed, but the EU as a whole should have no problem ramping up production of the basics like food, steel, concrete and energy. That is, of course, assuming someone does something about it. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has rattled a lot of people and while the EU is a slow moving beast it is already responding. I'm more worried about how to make the economy of it all work out. Someone is going to pay for all that it's going to be through taxes, and whomever gets that lottery ticket might not respond as expected (big Tech may decide to leave, smaller business could decide to simply shut down, regular people may cheat on taxes or start building guillotine replicas in public places, and so on.).

paganel 4y ago
> like food, steel, concrete and energy. Honest question, exactly how are they planning to do that absent cheap and abundant energy? Afaik the energy resources present in the Northern Sea are not up to the task (for re-industrialising the whole of Western Europe, that is).
- 2000UltraDeluxe 4y ago
  There are some oil reserves in the Baltic and there's a reason the EU is very interested in getting Ukraine on board (Black Sea oil), but frankly, it's more likely we'll just buy it from somewhere else once fossil fuels have been phased out. Until now there's been over-investment in renewables, but too little in modernizing the power grids. The result has been windmills being stopped during production peaks, because there's nowhere to send the power. I'd guess investing in grid upgrades, storage and cheap baseload capacity will be the main focus for the European energy the next 20 years.
- RandomLensman 4y ago
  Could use the huge shale gas reserves in Poland, France, and Germany if really needed.

paganel 4y ago

> like food, steel, concrete and energy. Honest question, exactly how are they planning to do that absent cheap and abundant energy? Afaik the energy resources present in the Northern Sea are not up to the task (for re-industrialising the whole of Western Europe, that is).

2000UltraDeluxe 4y ago
There are some oil reserves in the Baltic and there's a reason the EU is very interested in getting Ukraine on board (Black Sea oil), but frankly, it's more likely we'll just buy it from somewhere else once fossil fuels have been phased out. Until now there's been over-investment in renewables, but too little in modernizing the power grids. The result has been windmills being stopped during production peaks, because there's nowhere to send the power. I'd guess investing in grid upgrades, storage and cheap baseload capacity will be the main focus for the European energy the next 20 years.
RandomLensman 4y ago
Could use the huge shale gas reserves in Poland, France, and Germany if really needed.