Preparing for the first winter without Russian gas | Hacker News Reader

Preparing for the first winter without Russian gas

bruegel.org

38 pointseiz6 comments

I wonder why they don’t consider a tariff on Russian gas?

I've seen young tech workers from Vilnius complain about their €200-500 per month heating bills for their small flats. I have no idea how average people pay for this.

Centralised geothermal is probably good solution, but that removes Russian kickbacks from plant management.

i have a 120m2 house in amsterdam. 3 stories. my january bill was 520 euros. this year is going to become VERY expensive

I wonder how much heat can be extracted from Amsterdam's canals? It's pretty rare they freeze to begin with.

Maybe could be even used as geothermal heat distribution system or is it extremely vulnerable for the 3 remaining fish that live there?

Could you elaborate a bit please. I don't quite understand how tariffs on russian gas will help supply Europe. I assume you mean that it might reduce demand by raising the price for consumers. Which may be partially true, but most of the consumption of gas is hard to reduce... heating, cooking, electricital production.

Imo it wouldn't change the power dynamic or secure ressources for Europe. The suggestions in the article seem more appropriate.

From the article:

> Buying at record prices in a market environment in which geopolitical decisions and the strategic behaviour of a pivotal supplier can drastically change the demand-supply balance is a bet with limited upside and massive downsides (see Figure 5). Just imagine what would happen if by the summer, EU gas companies managed to amass close to 1000 TWh and Gazprom suddenly decides it is time to release the volumes it withheld last year. Prices would drop dramatically,

The market needs to believe that high prices are permanent and cheap prices aren’t going to come back. It seems like the solution to this would be to guarantee that prices can’t drop dramatically? I don’t think a tariff right now makes sense (prices are high) but if one were announced to take effect later (perhaps on Russian gas sales above a limited amount) then it would stabilize prices for non-Russian gas sellers.

Consider it a carbon / geopolitical risk tax. Good for the environment and the money could go to pay for NATO. It seems better than the money going to Russia?

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