German rejection of nuclear might go down as one of the most self destructive non war related choice by any government.<p>Even if you are gone say not to build anything new, just maintaining what they had would have resulted in significantly more energy then all energy they are getting from LNG now.
"In March, the German government asked energy companies to weigh a seemingly impossible engineering task. Could a new liquefied natural gas import terminal, which normally takes at least five years to build, be erected in this port town by year’s end?"<p>For anyone wondering what the specific feat was.
Unfortunately, Germany's currently problems are self-inflicted and were entirely predictable. They were encouraged to build LNG terminals and reduce their reliance on Russian gas back in 2014:<p><pre><code> Following the 2014 February coup in Ukraine and Crimea's reunification with Russia, the administration of Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, called upon the EU member states to cut their reliance on Russian gas, citing "security" reasons.
Speaking at the March 2014 EU-US Summit in Brussels, Obama urged the US' European allies to hurry up with the conclusion of the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), offering US liquefied natural gas (LNG) in exchange.
https://sputniknews.com/20180331/obama-trump-lng-europe-china-1063093406.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-eu-summit-idUSBREA2P0W220140326</code></pre>
LNG is pretty fascinating technology. A real product of our times. Have you ever seen the inside of an LNG tanker pressure vessel? Allow me to show you!<p><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Liquid_natural_gas_membrane_tank.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Liquid_n...</a><p>I don't know why they're waffle pattern yet but it sure looks cool. One day I want to stand inside one.
Congrats to Germany for this one, I wish we could do the same in the UK.<p>It has seemed to me that the planning system in its current state is actually badly damaging our economy and posperity. We don't build enough houses, and when we do, the infrastructure that's needed to support them takes decades to build. I've been hearing about another heathrow runway, and new trainline, etc for years and yet it seems we're no closer to having these built. Now we're stuck paying most of our income into a 30 year mortgage rather than anything useful/productive. That money could have gone into the productive economy.
The main point here was to remove certain blocking rights of environmentalists, that normally block such projects for years. They still can go to court but this is not blocking anything anymore. If someone brings real issues up, they now can be handled while building, nit in the planning phase as before.
The headline is misleading. What Germany did here was building a dock for a floating LNG terminal, not the LNG terminal itself.<p>The whole point floating LNG terminals is to be able to provide a site within a very short timeframe.<p>Germany didn’t build a fixed LNG terminal yet neither did they build a floating LNG terminal themselves. These floating terminals are rented from other countries.
This is a misleading piece. What Germany did was to rent a floating LNG terminal. The real terminal still needs to be built, unless they want to add this cost to the already extremely high cost of LNG, for the long run. The so called solutions that Germany found to the gas problem only can be considered throwing large amounts of money to the equation. It may work in the short term, but the country still needs to find a way to support its industry for the years to come, or it will go broke.
This article's comment section wins the award for most really smart people saying really dumb things because they hold strong opinions on subject matter far outside their area of expertise.
Fear of russian aggression gave us the internet, nuclear weaponry, jet engines and the space program.<p>russia's genocide in Ukraine is proving to be a huge catalyst for green energy and drone technology. Those of us whose ancestry include refugees from russia's Pogroms are very happy to see a future with an impotent russia.
So let me get the timeline right.<p>1) USA becomes a natural gas exporter based on fracking mostly in the Appalachians.<p>2) USA tells Germany they can't turn on Nordstream 2. Threatens German officials if they turn it on.<p>3) Russia invades Ukraine.<p>4) Some country sabotages Nordstream 2.<p>5) Germany builds port to import natural gas via the sea. Mostly from Qatar and USA, but definitely not from Russia.<p>Did I miss anything?<p>Now I read an article in the WSJ praising Germany for helping USA's natural gas exports. Meanwhile the German Greens get more militaristic and anti-environment every year.<p>It's cheaper to import natural gas via a pipeline than via diesel powered ships, and it's impossible to deliver enough via ships for all of Europe. Yet the German Greens prefer burning diesel to get their natural gas in slowly if it means we can pretend to be sanctioning Russia. But were not actually sanctioning Russia because we're stil buying fuel from them, only at a set price.<p>As a European I get sick of being America's bitch sometimes. Russia is still selling all of their natural gas and oil. We've accomplished nothing but gimped ourselves for the sake of licking American boots. The USA just told ASML, Dutch supplier of chip making infrastructure, that they are not allowed to sell to China. Why, because China bad and we're America's bitch. That's the only reason given. Once again ASML was forced into compliance by threats from the Americans, and they complied because we're their little bitch that they get to smack around.<p>My winter gas prices are through the roof. Not because of Russia, or Ukraine, or any European reason. But because the Americans won't let us buy gas from Russia and instead force us to import it via the sea from the USA, Qatar, etc.
We need them to starve just a little bit and the world will start becoming a much better place. Most of our (EU's) problems are literally caused by Germany's double standards over the past 20 years.