Atlantic Sentinel

Tag: Energy

  • Americans, Dutch See Tradeoff Between Climate and Wildlife

    Netherlands wind turbines
    Wind turbines in the dunes of Holland (Vattenfall)

    Should we sacrifice wildlife to fight climate change? Whether it’s toads being uprooted by geothermal plants or birds being killed by wind turbines, the question vexes politicians in America and the Netherlands.

    So far, the Americans have been more likely to answer “no”.

    West Virginia senator Joe Manchin has angered many in his Democratic Party with a plan to speed up energy permits. He would set a two-year target for environmental reviews and a 150-day statute of limitations on court challenges. (The average review takes four-and-a-half years, costs $4.2 million and is 600 pages long. I’ve argued the reforms don’t go far enough, and the two-year “target” should be made into a deadline.)

    In the Netherlands, the left-liberal climate and energy minister, Rob Jetten, has licensed the construction of 1,700 wind turbines in the North Sea, which would increase Dutch offshore energy generation by a factor of eight. Environmentalists warn the impact of this expansion on birds and marine life is understudied. (more…)

  • Manchin’s Permitting Reforms Don’t Go Far Enough

    Wasco Oregon wind turbines
    Wind turbines outside Wasco, Oregon, July 1, 2019 (Unsplash/Dan Meyers)

    West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, the most conservative in the Senate, has proposed to make it easier to build energy plants and infrastructure.

    Manchin was promised permitting reforms for supporting the Inflation Reduction Act; really a health-care and green-energy spending plan.

    But other Democrats are skeptical, arguing Manchin’s Energy Independence and Security Act would benefit fossil fuels and nuclear power in addition to renewables. Republicans don’t think the reforms go far enough.

    Which would normally suggest to me Manchin had found the right balance, but in this case the right has the better of the argument. (If you agree America must massively expand clean energy, which unfortunately few Republicans do.) (more…)

  • EU Proposes to Cap Electricity, Russian Gas Prices

    Ursula von der Leyen
    European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen delivers a news conference in Brussels, July 19 (European Commission/Christophe Licoppe)

    European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has proposed an unprecedented intervention in European energy markets to bring down electricity and gas prices:

    • Cap the price Europe pays for Russian gas.
    • Cap prices of electricity generated in non-gas plants.
    • Mandate energy conservation during peak hours.
    • Tax windfall profits made by energy companies to finance relief for small businesses and households.

    Russia immediately threatened to cut off all energy supplies if member states agreed to the plan.

    The Netherlands, which led the opposition to a blanket cap on gas prices, could support one for Russian gas.

    The Czech Republic, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, remains skeptical. Industry minister Jozef Síkela told reporters a council of European energy ministers on Friday would consider only two proposals: delinking electricity and gas prices, and capping electricity generated in non-gas plants. (The second requires the first.) (more…)

  • Europe’s Energy Crisis, Explained

    Eemshaven Netherlands power plant
    Coal plant and wind turbines in the Eemshaven of the Netherlands (Kees van de Veen)

    European countries spent €280 billion on subsidies and tax cuts in the last year to help businesses and households pay their energy bills.

    It may not be enough.

    Prices surged when Russia expanded its war in Ukraine in February and European states agreed to reduce their imports of Russian natural gas. The EU as a whole got 40 percent of its gas from Russia in previous years. That is down to 20 percent.

    But there are more factors pushing up electricity and gas prices. Here is an overview, including what governments have done to ameliorate the effects. (more…)

  • Democrats Taxed and Regulated, Now Subsidize, Chips and Energy

    Joe Biden Nancy Pelosi
    American president Joe Biden and Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi in the Capitol in Washington DC, October 28, 2021 (White House/Adam Schultz)

    Ronald Reagan summarized government’s view of the economy: “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.”

    Economists now call this cost-disease socialism: first restrict supply, then subsidize the costs. The United States does this with everything from health care (examples here) to housing (although Joe Biden’s reforms go in the right direction).

    Democrats are making the same mistake with their technology and climate laws.

    There is plenty to like about the CHIPS and Science Act and the (albeit misleadingly-named) Inflation Reduction Act. The first doubles government funding of research into 6G communications, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence and other breakthrough technologies; the latter creates a 15-percent minimum tax on the largest corporations, lowers annual out-of-pocket drug payments for Medicare patients from $7,050 to $2,000 beginning in 2025 and will allow Medicare to negotiate some drug prices starting in 2026.

    But both laws also spend billions of dollars in subsidies and tax credits to prop up technologies and industries that could have been deregulated instead. (more…)

  • Even in Gas Crisis, Germany Refuses Nuclear Power

    Germany coal power plant
    Coal power plant outside Hamm in Westphalia, Germany (Draheim/Hans Blossey)

    Germans are urged to ration gas. “We are in the midst of a gas crisis,” according to economy and climate minister Robert Habeck. “From now on, gas is a scarce asset.” Russia has reduced supplies to what used to be its largest customer in the EU in anger over the bloc’s support for Ukraine.

    All consumers, whether in industry, in public institutions or private households, should reduce their gas consumption as much as possible, so that we can make it through the winter.

    Habeck is auctioning gas supplies to industry to incentivize conservation, providing €15 billion in credit to pay for non-Russian gas supplies and reopening mothballed coal power plants.

    If Russia cut off gas completely, Habeck fears the economic impact would be “worse than the COVID pandemic.” The Green party leader has likened a Russian gas stop to a “Lehman Brothers effect.” The American investment bank’s collapse triggered the 2008 financial crisis.

    Yet even now, Habeck will not keep Germany’s three remaining nuclear plants, which provide 5 percent of its electricity, online. They are slated to be retired at the end of the year. (more…)

  • Dutch Ignored Warnings About Relying on Russian Gas

    The Hague Netherlands
    Dutch government offices and parliament buildings in The Hague (iStock/Fotolupa)

    Germany is primarily to blame for Europe’s dependence on Russian gas. As I wrote here two weeks ago, it simultaneously phased out coal and nuclear, couldn’t possibly replace both with renewables, relied on natural gas and hid behind the excuse that buying gas from Russia was just business. If there were political implications at all, successive German governments argued they would be positive. Trading with the Soviet Union had paved the way for détente, and at the time Americans had also opposed Ostpolitik. Why listen to them now?

    But this time the Americans were right. And Eastern Europeans. And the many Western experts who tried to warn their governments that they were relying on an unreliable regime and funding Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

    My country is no exception. When I was doing research for Wynia’s Week about Gazprom’s sprawling business interests in the Netherlands, I discovered that the Dutch government had been repeatedly warned through the years against relying on Russian gas imports.

    Hubert Smeets, the co-founder of Raam op Rusland, which publishes in Dutch and English, told me the Netherlands should have looked for alternatives to Russian gas, especially after the annexation of Crimea and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in which 193 Dutch nationals were killed. “It is unbelievable that the opposite happened under Prime Minister Mark Rutte.”

    Only now that Russia has dramatically escalated its war in Ukraine do most Dutch political parties want to stop buying Russian gas. (And are they willing to raise defense spending.)

    They should have paid more attention in the past. The warning signs were there. (more…)

  • Why Europe Didn’t Reduce Its Dependence on Russian Gas

    Rotterdam Netherlands port
    Liquified natural gas terminal in the port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands (Gasunie)

    Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan and the United States have imposed unprecedented economic sanctions on Russia since it invaded Ukraine, banning Russian airlines and state media, cutting off Russian banks from the SWIFT financial system and freezing the assets of Russian oligarchs and the Russian Central Bank.

    The one step European countries haven’t taken is blocking Russian oil and gas. They can’t.

    Oil and gas account for 60 percent of Russia’s exports and 39 percent of its tax revenues. Cutting off either or both would seriously hamper Vladimir Putin’s ability to make war. But Europe is just as dependent on Russian imports as Russia is on exports.

    This is not a new problem. After Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, the European Commission tried to get member states behind a common energy strategy that would make the EU more self-reliant. Member states prioritized their individual interests.

    1. Eastern Europeans understood the danger of relying on Russia, but refused to invest in green energy, because it was too expensive.
    2. Western Europeans invested more in renewables, but also chose to rely on Russian gas and ignored the risks. (more…)

  • Germany Exports Its Energy Failures

    Olaf Scholz
    German chancellor Olaf Scholz arrives in Rome, Italy, December 20, 2021 (Bundesregierung)

    The Netherlands is forced to drill for almost twice as much natural gas this year as it intended to, partly as a result of higher-than-expected demand from Germany.

    Germany requires an additional 1.1 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas, and the Netherlands is contractually obliged to provide it.

    The Dutch need 2 bcm more for their own consumption plus 1.6 bcm to fill depleted stores for next winter.

    Altogether production must rise from 3.9 to 7.6 bcm — still a fraction of the 72 bcm of gas the Netherlands produced as recently as 2013.

    The Netherlands has small gas fields in the North Sea. The bulk of its gas is extracted from the northeastern region of Groningen. Or was, because the government had promised to shut down production there entirely.

    Years of drilling have caused increasingly violent earthquakes. The government has so far paid €220 million in compensation to owners of damaged homes. Another €250 million may be needed. A parliamentary inquiry into the government’s handling of the damage is due to begin next week.

    Which makes Germany’s request especially awkward for the Netherlands’ prime minister, Mark Rutte. He has asked the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, for alternatives. (more…)

  • EU Is Right to Label Nuclear Power Green

    Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant Finland
    Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency visits the Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant in Finland, November 26, 2020 (TVO/Tapani Karjanlahti)

    The European Commission has proposed to label nuclear power “green” in order to meet the bloc’s ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050.

    The EU taxonomy still needs to be approved by the European Parliament and member states, but it seems unlikely they will want to unwind a hard-won compromise.

    Once approved, it should unleash private-sector investment in green industries.

    In a concession to coal-dependent Germany, which is phasing out nuclear power, the taxonomy would also consider natural gas “green” until 2030.

    Ten member states, including Belgium, Finland and France, had argued for including nuclear power. An eleventh, the Netherlands, just announced plans to phase out natural gas and build two more nuclear plants. (more…)

  • Don’t Blame Russia for High Gas Prices

    Amur gas plant Svobodny Russia
    Gazprom workers at the Amur natural gas plant outside Svobodny, Russia, June 9, 2021 (Gazprom)

    The price of natural gas is skyrocketing. In the United States, it’s up 100 percent from a year ago. In parts of Europe, 500 percent. Japan and Korea are paying record prices for liquified natural gas imports.

    Nick Ottens explained the reasons behind this surge here. I will focus on one: Russia’s role.

    Russia has been accused of market manipulation by various countries: forcing the price of gas up in order to accelerate the completion of Nord Stream 2. This accusation is unsurprising, given the history of price and supply disputes between Europe and Russia.

    But it is wrong. (more…)

  • Opposition to Nuclear Power Is Irrational

    Power plant China
    Nuclear power plant in China (iStock)

    In my latest column for the Dutch opinion blog Wynia’s Week, I argue opposition to nuclear power makes no sense.

    • Fatalities from nuclear accidents pale in comparison to the eight million deaths fossil fuels cause — every year.
    • Uranium, the most common nuclear fuel, is scarce, just like oil and natural gas, but it is two million times more powerful than oil.
    • All the nuclear waste produced in the world so far could fit inside a single football stadium. Modern reactors are able to recycle their waste as fuel until there is almost no radioactive waste left.
    • Nuclear power generation doesn’t emit carbon dioxides (CO₂). The environmental impact of nuclear energy barely registers in comparison to the havoc wreaked on the planet by fossil fuels. (more…)

  • Europe’s High Energy Prices, Explained

    Eemshaven Netherlands power plant
    Power plant in the Eemshaven of the Netherlands, April 17, 2020 (Unsplash/Untitled Photo)

    Electricity prices are hitting records across Europe. In Portugal and Spain, wholesale energy prices have tripled from half a year ago to €178 per megawatt-hour. Italy is not far behind at €176. Dutch households without a fixed-price contract could end up paying €500 more this year. In the UK, prices peaked at €247 per megawatt-hour earlier this week.

    The main culprit is the high price of natural gas, up 440 percent from a year ago. But Europe is facing something of a perfect storm involving accidents, depleted reserves and a higher carbon price.

    Here are all the reasons prices are up — and what governments are doing about it. (more…)

  • Energy Plays Key Role in Dutch Election

    Netherlands wind turbines
    Wind turbines near Velp, the Netherlands (Unsplash/Sander Weeteling)

    Energy is one of the top issues in the Dutch parliamentary election, which will take place next month. Right-of-center parties have followed the traditionally more environmentally conscious Greens and social-liberal D66 (of which I am a member) in their ambition to adhere to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. But there are differences.

    While there is consensus on some topics, such as biomass and natural gas, nuclear energy and windmills are controversial. (more…)

  • Pressure Mounts on Merkel to Cancel Nord Stream 2

    Vladimir Putin Angela Merkel
    Russian president Vladimir Putin speaks with German chancellor Angela Merkel in Moscow, May 10, 2015 (Kremlin)

    Pressure is mounting on Chancellor Angela Merkel to cancel the almost-completed Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which could double Russian gas exports to Germany.

    Merkel has accused the Russian government of poisoning opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is recuperating in a Berlin hospital.

    The obvious response, her critics say, would be to withdraw from a €10 billion project that makes Germany — Europe’s largest gas importer — more dependent on Russia. (more…)