How then, do we move backwards? How does a society, with most of the people having no clue of future events, move from being dependent on a vast and intertwined network of goods and services produced by the indigenous people of whereever, to a local resource and renewable energy based society, and do so in the timeframe available (20-30 years using the most liberal extimates, 10-20 with resonable estimates, 5-10 with worst case scenarios), all the while prices on everything increasing, world politics getting more militaristic, governments continuously reducing civil liberties, shortages of goods on the market and weather patterns resembling bad Hollywood movies?
Joined: Mar 04, 2005 Posts: 2552 Location: New Zealand
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:31 pm Post subject: How Europe Could Use Less Russian Energy
How Europe Could Use Less Russian Energy
Quote:
Many of the countries of Europe and the former Soviet Union are forced to deal with Russia for their energy, and the relationship is like that of a customer and a surly shopkeeper. It's expensive, buying all that oil and gas, and having to make nice while paying for it doesn't make the transaction any smoother.
The only way to lower the bill is to buy less. Among some of the sexier statistics to make the case for energy efficiency:
" Central Europe could save more than 20 percent of its current energy consumption, while southeastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States could save 30 percent to 50 percent, according to the International Energy Agency.
" By 2030, under existing trends, the European Union will import 90 percent of the oil it uses, up from about 82 percent in 2005, and 90 percent of its gas, up from 57 percent.
" To achieve each unit of its GDP, Ukraine, for example, consumes six times more energy than the Western European average.
Solutions are not hard to come by. An arm of the World Bank has backed nearly $50 million in loans over the past two years for companies in Russia and Central and Eastern Europe to invest in energy-saving equipment. The U.S. Agency for International Development has assessed heating systems in former Soviet republics and has worked to develop a pan-Central Asian market for renewable energy and energy-efficient technology.
businessweek _________________ Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. H. G. Wells.
Fatih Birol's motto: leave oil before it leaves us.
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 8:11 am Post subject: Re: How Europe Could Use Less Russian Energy
What a bunch of whiners. The poor dears have to pay a whopping $300 per tcm of Russian gas when Norway charges $600. Please go ahead and reduce your purchases, Russia will need all of its gas well before 2030 as production declines.
Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:24 pm Post subject: Re: How Europe Could Use Less Russian Energy
The market is working fine, why all the crying?
What do people want Russia to do? Give everything away?
Why is it that capitalsim is only for the West? But Americans and Europeans want to take Russian oil and gas below market value.
A bunch of spoiled crying lossers in the EU and the US.
Joined: Apr 09, 2007 Posts: 5103 Location: Alaska (its much bigger than Texas).
Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 7:40 pm Post subject: Re: How Europe Could Use Less Russian Energy
Relax.
The EU is free not to buy from Russia if they can find alternative energy sources at cheaper prices, and Russia is free not to sell to the EU if they find alternative buyers willing to pay more...
Joined: Jul 04, 2008 Posts: 103 Location: Europe: European Historian
Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 5:06 am Post subject: Re: How Europe Could Use Less Russian Energy
I love all this "by 2030"
Heck by 2013 the world will be in a recession. Oil will likely by then be at record levels "likely leveling off due to some demand destruction" The dollar will be at record lows. Food prices skyrocketing. The world at energy crisis like the 1970s. Unemployment in the west in the teens.
By 2030................give me a break...by 2030 the world will have gone through the ringer...
By this time I expect the break up of the USA. The Die off in full swing "most people will die off in the 2020-2030 decade" Nuclear exchange will have happened before 2030.
The cliff event will happen around 2015 'give or take 3 years'
in 2030 the world will be a differnt place.
Joined: Sep 24, 2007 Posts: 2584 Location: third from the sun
Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 10:21 am Post subject: Re: How Europe Could Use Less Russian Energy
Plantagenet wrote:
Relax.
The EU is free not to buy from Russia if they can find alternative energy sources at cheaper prices, and Russia is free not to sell to the EU if they find alternative buyers willing to pay more...
The issue is that Russia uses its resources for geopolitical aims, and the EU is increasingly dependent on it. Don't play dumb. _________________ only the paranoid survive
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