[BostonCard]

Just to be clear, German energy policy is important to Ukraine, even though I didn’t connect the dots.  In order for Ukraine to continue to hold out against Russia, it will need support from the west. Russia is withholding natural gas from Western Europe, in an explicit bid to make European support for Ukraine costly. Thus, the ability of Germany to withstand the coming winter without large numbers of Germans freezing to death and without triggering a massive contraction in German industry is vital. Being able to maintain the three nuclear power plants scheduled for decommissioning would keep 65 TW of electricity online, which is equivalent to 7.4 million cubic feet of natural gas per hour of operation. In 2019, Germany consumed 8.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, so while it isn’t a make or break amount, it would represent about 2% of daily natural gas use. Remember that the EU is trying to cut natural gas consumption by 15%, so the 2% would make a dent.

BC

[BostonCard]

Just to be clear, German energy policy is important to Ukraine, even though I didn’t connect the dots.  In order for Ukraine to continue to hold out against Russia, it will need support from the west. Russia is withholding natural gas from Western Europe, in an explicit bid to make European support for Ukraine costly. Thus, the ability of Germany to withstand the coming winter without large numbers of Germans freezing to death and without triggering a massive contraction in German industry is vital. Being able to maintain the three nuclear power plants scheduled for decommissioning would keep 65 TW of electricity online, which is equivalent to 7.4 million cubic feet of natural gas per hour of operation. In 2019, Germany consumed 8.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, so while it isn’t a make or break amount, it would represent about 2% of daily natural gas use. Remember that the EU is trying to cut natural gas consumption by 15%, so the 2% would make a dent.

BC