must be sarcasm. must be
Europe shut down more than 20 Diesel refineries in the past 20 years and then we cry that Diesel is too expensive and blame the Americans. Pathetic.
Our industrial and energy policy is that we will become completely dependent on the Middle East, US, Russia and China so we have absolutely no autonomy and no viability. Embarrassing. Pathetic. Shameful.
If Europe did not shut down domestic energy production and oil and gas extraction in order to buy oil and gas from Russia then oil and gas would be a lot cheaper today.
Blaming the Americans for what we did to ourselves is insane and rooted in deep ignorance of what actually happened in Europe in the past two decades.
But yet again this just shows how totally dependent we in Europe are on Americans for everything. Pathetic.
Europe has a faith based energy policy, sort of the opposite of "if you build it, they will come". With respect to fossil fuels, Europe has adopted the point of view that "if we destroy it, we won't need it".
Now contrast with China. China is expanding use of coal(1), they have signed long term contracts with Iran and Russia for oil and natural gas, they are building more pipelines(2), they are increasing their own oil exploration to further exploit any fossil fuel resources they have domestically (3), and they are expanding domestic refining capacity (4).
Plus, they have accumulated a massive 1.5 billion barrel strategic reserve of oil. All while also expanding investments in nuclear and renewables. It's not like if you build a refinery, then that prevents you from building a nuclear power plant also. You can do both! You can make energy cheap and abundant.
That is why China is awash in low cost energy to fuel domestic industry (5) while Europe is energy starved. One is led by strategic thinking rooted in reality while the other is led by a policy of wishful thinking and then scolding when things go sideways.
(1) https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chinas-coal-power-ri...
(2) https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202608/17/WS6a82d860a3107385...
(3) https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/new-updates/china-...
(4) https://en.sedaily.com/international/2026/10/05/us-japan-eur...
(5) https://www.globalelectricity.org/electricity-prices-by-coun...
So you have a choice:
1. Blame America
2. a) Take responsibility for not exploiting Europe's own existing gas and oil resource sufficiently. Increase exploitation of natural resources within the EU to reduce reliance on external resources.
b) Take responsibility for shutting down 1/3 of Europe's diesel refining capacity, and take steps to restore that refining capacity.
c) Take responsibility for losing access to oil and gas from Russia, and take steps to restore access.
d) Take responsibility for backing Israel and the US and start cutting independent deals with Iran and Yemen to restore more access Persian gulf resources.
A resentful slave is still a slave, and right now Europe is America's slave, dependent on the US for energy, food, and weapons. Nursing resentments about America is nothing more than psychological venting.
Wasn't the Hormuz straight perfectly fine before the USA decided to... well do whatever they did?
Instead, we went in for the Green energy scam which has not made our energy cheaper or more reliable and has not significantly reduced fossil fuel dependence and has made us totally dependent on the foreign suppliers and manufacturers. We don't even want to produce the windmills and solar panels domestically.
All of this is insane, and if the US stops underwriting our security we cannot survive. Yes sure, the European economy is better than Russia's economy, but most people in Europe has no interest in fighting in a defensive war, so if Russia with the backing of China actually does challenge us we are likely done for. Russia's money also stretches much further than ours, and they don't have to worry about their approval ratings if they mobilize their military because they are not a democracy. No German government will remain in power if they mobilize.
And let's not forget that our Nuclear umbrella providers, France and the UK, both seems on the brink of internal collapse with repeated riots and high levels of disaffection by the vast swathes of their imported populations that feel absolutely no sense of belonging with the host population and countries, and high levels of resentment and disgruntlement of the native populations with the utter failure of centre-left governance.
I really don't understand how anyone seriously believes that if the US withdraws support for Europe that France and the UK will actually go to war to defend any other European country, never mind themselves. They are much more likely to just immediately collapse internally.
All of this is deeply shameful, and it was us Europeans that chose this vassalage. We have to start choosing better. We can be the dominant power in the world. We can be the hegemony, a much better one than the US, if we get serious and choose it.
So doubling... roughly nothing? Europe is importing almost all its oil and gas, right?
> If we went for the only viable green energy source we have, which is Nuclear
Well I do agree that it was unfortunate that Germany (and others) actively avoided nuclear power. Though it's nice that renewables are improving, too.
> if Russia with the backing of China actually does challenge us we are likely done for
Really? Russia has been fighting Ukraine for years. You're saying that Russia can easily beat a much larger part of Europe? How?
> France and the UK, both seems on the brink of internal collapse with repeated riots
Times are hard. Germany does not look that good with AfD, if you ask me.
> high levels of disaffection by the vast swathes of their imported populations that feel absolutely no sense of belonging with the host population and countries, and high levels of resentment and disgruntlement of the native populations with the utter failure of centre-left governance.
Not sure where you're going, this sounds racist.
> if the US withdraws support for Europe that France and the UK will actually go to war to defend any other European country
When did the US last go to war to defend any European country again?
> We can be the dominant power in the world
Is that the goal? I just want to live in peace.
Stopping border enforcement, decommissioning nuclear power and the heavy swing towards renewable energy are some of the most far left radical policy that has ever been tried, and it all came from Merkel, and they all failed spectacularly, and have significantly damaged Europe and Germany.
If it was not for these failed far-left policy choices many of her centre-right fiscal policy choices would have never been made either. And it's not clear that a centre-left government would have had the option to make other fiscal policy choices.
So I entirely reject the premise that Merkel's era was centre-right.
No shit sherlock. The subsidies are still being paid out and will start crashing in 2030.
https://share.google/aimode/yZvPy6zX1ycyyrKsp (This link is only valid for 7 days, sorry).
>and has not significantly reduced fossil fuel dependence
???
The americans kind of forced you off the russian gas though
> Now everyone is crying about insane fossil fuel prices after our policy for more than a decade was to make fossil fuel non-viable. Pathetic.
I think its not only fossil fuel. Germany's decision to shut down nuclear power plants (while also trying to get to net zero C02 emissions) is outright suicidal imo.
Not to mention by 2030 it's completely game over for ICE cars and fossil fuel plants except gas for peaker plants and even gas heating is becoming financially unviable today. All the old EEG subsidies will start to run out in 2030 and even the remaining subsidized PV plants will be cheaper than fossil fuels.
Germany shutting down nuclear and coal powered plants was their own decision. I kind of agree with your evaluation, but confusingly it seems like they want it like that (?)