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Comment by latchkey | Hacker News Reader

> Perhaps I'm mis-remembering, but I remember US policymakers repeatedly warning Europe, over many decades, about the dangers of depending on Russian energy sources.

2018, even Trump... https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1044740334306058241

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And before that 2014, Obama after the invasion of Crimea

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-eu-summit/obama-tells...

Thankfully the fact checkers were there to save us. "Germany only imports a fraction of it's energy from Russia" with the smug faces, silly music and everything.

What I remember is that fact checkers mostly focusing on Trump’s frequent conflation of natural gas and all energy. He would often, either carelessly or deliberately misleadingly, say things like “60% of Germany’s energy comes from Russia” when it was actually 60% of Germany’s natural gas, and natural gas accounts for only around 20% of Germany’s total energy. That seems like a reasonable distinction for fact-checkers to highlight.

Oh then it isn't a big deal then. Nothing for Germans to worry about.

Almost correct. Things to worry, but not the end of the world neither.

But it's already a big deal just with the true parts. No need to resort to false parts to make it sound like a big deal.

On multiple occasions too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5MJEMHZZsI

Yeah, because the US wanted especially Germany to buy US LNG instead of Russian gas. The latter worked since the 69s, it worled all the wayvthrough the Reagan admin and the end of the cold war, the fall of the soviet union until Putin turned nuts. All in all, tgat bad dependency worked nicely for 50+ years.

Now that changes an Europe will adapt.

"adapt". There's decades of pain and death for millions in your use of the word, pain and death that could have been avoided, and will undo much of whatever the that 50+ year dependency produced.

Also say what you will about US policy, we may not be altruists but we're a far lesser evil than the Russians have ever been from a European perspective. Cheap energy from Russia has been a Faustian bargain for at least the last 15 years.

Soviet gas was a reliable thing for 50+ years, that changed only in 2022. And couod you please explain how millions are going to die in Europe over the change from gas to some other renewable source of heating? Seriously curious here, because I see that shit repeatef all iver the place without any reasonable explanation whatsoever.

Obviously it won't be direct or all at once, but serious inflation kills. Economic recessions kill. Suicides and overdoses increase, and European energy prices are climbing so high people literally freezing to death might not be unheard of if winter is cold enough. And even those who can make it through will be seriously diminished economically. Peoples' livelihoods will be destroyed.

One thing's for sure, the vaunted European social safety nets are going to have a hell of a stress test over the next few years. I hope they're up to the task.

Yeah, until you elect DeSantis or Trump again. Thanks.

How did Germany buy US LNG for the last 50 years? They certainly can't buy it now they since they don't have the terminals to receive the ships.

We didn't buy large amounts of US LNG, which is the entire point. It was not really necessary until Russia launched its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

There are terminals in the netherlands and belgium which can then be piped to the rest of europe.

"even trump"

I think that tends to undermine the point though.

I was helping with the mis-remembering, not making a point. Trump is a clown and the fact that 'even' he got this right, just goes to show how bad it was for Germany to depend primarily on a single point of failure.

That single point of failure delivered reliable for 50+ years. Common, a crowd like the one on HN should get at least the basics right before predicting the end of western civilisation.

Past performance does not always guarantee future results.

Or maybe he's just a clown and wrong about this aswell. Or maybe he was right but for the wrong reason.

It's like saying that dinosaurs exist and pointing to some passage in the Bible.

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