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Comment by microtonal | Hacker News Reader

Energy prices are up in Europe because Europe was too dependent on Russia for gas (and now the US) and the Middle East for oil, not regulation. We are too dependent on fossil fuels because (mostly right wing) politicians tried to block/underinvest in wind/solar/geothermal for too long.

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Almost correct, except it's the green/left that forced a shutdown of nuclear and sold the gas as "green". At least in Germany/Scandinavia, might be different in the rest of Europe.

> During the chancellorship of Gerhard Schröder, the social democratic-green government decreed Germany's final retreat from using nuclear power by 2022.[1]

The Gerhard Schröder that

> Since leaving public office, Schröder has worked for Russian state-owned energy companies, including Nord Stream AG, Rosneft, and Gazprom.[2]

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power_in_Germany

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Schr%C3%B6der

And yet, Germany does not import gas from Russia anymore. Did nuclear industry in other countries stop importing from Rosatom already?

If the Nord Stream didn't get blown up it could have been different.

The nord stream pipeline was not carrying gas when blown up. But other pipelines were.

> Since leaving public office, Schröder has worked for Russian state-owned energy companies

People often cite this fact as if there were a problem to it. (Not sure it is your case though.) Is it that Germany is not allowed to have national interests? Who is the judge on this? Our "friend", the remaining exceptional occupation power?

By the way, chancellor Merz, before taking office, had worked for (and owes his personal wealth to) Usanian financial company Blackrock, thus creating a (rarely cited) allegiance problem at the highest level of the state apparatus.

Different in the rest of Europe. Many countries have kept mostly the same number of nuclear power plants.

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