Germany's gas crisis generates nuclear dilemma for ruling Greens

[Scott]

Germany's gas crisis generates nuclear dilemma for ruling Greens

 

 

By Riham Alkousaa

and Andreas Rinke

1/2

Pipes are pictured at a gas compressor station in Mallnow, Germany, November 1, 2021.

 

BERLIN, July 15 (Reuters) - German conservative politicians have revived debate on extending the life of the country's three remaining nuclear power plants, and polls show a rise in public support for the energy source in the face of a possible cut-off of Russian gas.

But an extension is highly sensitive for Germany's ruling Greens party, which grew out of the 1970s anti-nuclear movement.

Germany's three remaining nuclear power plants are scheduled to be shut down by the end of the year after former chancellor Angela Merkel pledged to halt the use of nuclear electricity after the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/germanys-gas-crisis-generates-nuclear-dilemma-ruling-greens-2022-07-15/

[digger70]

2 hours ago, ozimoron said:

If we don't stop burning most fossil fuels well be fore that time we will no longer have a habitable planet. Try not to start a debate by slurring those who hold a different opinion than you it says a lot about your objectivity.      

I am Not starting a debate ,I am just say that I have a Different opinion than you.????

[BritManToo]

3 hours ago, ozimoron said:

If we don't stop burning most fossil fuels well be fore that time we will no longer have a habitable planet. Try not to start a debate by slurring those who hold a different opinion than you it says a lot about your objectivity.

Assuming your alarmist climate change nonsense is real. 

[Credo]

I am 100% in favor of renewable energy, but we are a long way from being able to do it and keep the lights on.  As we transition, nuclear is the most viable option.  We can build them safely.  It's expensive, but well worth the effort.   

[herfiehandbag]

On 7/16/2022 at 3:48 AM, Scott said:

Germany's three remaining nuclear power plants are scheduled to be shut down by the end of the year after former chancellor Angela Merkel pledged to halt the use of nuclear electricity after the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011.

Just out of interest, are these three nuclear power stations, or indeed any of the ones which have closed, situated in areas of Germany which are likely to suffer a tsunami?

 

Given Germany's almost stellar reputation for engineering skills and thoroughness I would have thought that it was one of the countries in the world best suited to operate nuclear power!

 

I am sure that the decision could never have had anything to do with German politicians enthusiasm (links?) for importing gas from Russia?

Edited July 17, 2022 by herfiehandbag

[Pattaya Spotter]

Angela Merkel was lauded for years as a steady experienced (and smart...she was a nuclear physicist in a prior life after all) but she made a lot of very poor decisions during her tenure. These include panicking after the Fukushima nuclear accident and phasing out nuclear power plants, green lighting the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, thus greatly expanding Germany's reliance on a single source country for a critical energy supply, fall for "the sky is falling" climate change narrative and pushing the country to adopt a "energi wiend" or transformation to "green" energy sources like wind and solar, which by their very nature are intermittent and unreliable. There is also the issue of her 1% defense budgets, which has left the armed forces hollowed out and completely unable to defend the country or meet its NATO commitments. The lady will go down as a very poor leader in the eyes of history.

[placeholder]

*Deleted post edited out*

 

James Carafano is an right wing alarmist and conspiracy theorist who works for the Heritage Foundation, an organization that started out on the right and then went to the extreme right.

 

Drillers are sitting on a huge mound of drilling right thanks to the fire sale of such right during the Trump administration. There is, in fact, a huge backlog.

 

And your comments about refineries is bizarre. Are you claiming Biden is responsible for the lack of frefining capability in the US? He's been in office less 18 months. How many refineries got built during the entire Trump administration?

 

As for the shutting down of nuclear plants in Germany, that was the overwhelmingly popular position of the German electorate. Maybe it was a bad idea, but not the product of some cabal.

 

Maybe when renewables such as wind and solar started their prices were high. But now they produce electricity far more cheaply than coal even when coal was cheap. And now their power is far cheaper than that produced by gas. 

 

Yes, Germany was very foolish in relying on Russian Gas. As Joe Biden pointed out in 2016:

Biden warns Europe against dependency on Russia for heating oil and natural gas

US Vice President Joe Biden warned European countries against becoming too dependent on Russian oil and gas, saying it would be "bad" for Europe.

Biden was specifically referring to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline which is supposed to deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea. He called it "a fundamentally bad deal for Europe," adding that "Europe needs diverse sources of natural gas, not, in our view, a Nord Stream 2 pipeline."

https://www.dw.com/en/biden-warns-europe-against-dependency-on-russia-for-heating-oil-and-natural-gas/a-19503334

And as Obama warned in 2013

Obama tells EU to do more to cut reliance on Russian gas

U.S. President Barack Obama told the European Union on Wednesday it cannot rely on the United States alone to reduce its dependency on Russian energy, as relations with Moscow chill over its seizure of Crimea from Ukraine.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-eu-summit-idUSBREA2P0W220140326

 

Edited July 17, 2022 by Scott

[Scott]

A post with a dubious source has been removed.  Please make sure you are linking to credible sources. 

 

Off-topic posts pertaining to US politics will be removed.  Stay on topic.

 

[bocaBob]

"IEA warns Europe must cut gas consumption immediately
Energy agency urges governments to cap air conditioning use and start auctioning gas to industry."

https://www.ft.com/content/0b42d3c8-e5ab-4be7-ae1c-1b973e0f47d5

 

LOL.... PUTIN schooling the West, when will they learn.

Edited July 18, 2022 by bocaBob

[placeholder]

1 hour ago, bocaBob said:

"IEA warns Europe must cut gas consumption immediately
Energy agency urges governments to cap air conditioning use and start auctioning gas to industry."

https://www.ft.com/content/0b42d3c8-e5ab-4be7-ae1c-1b973e0f47d5

 

LOL.... PUTIN schooling the West, when will they learn.

Actually, Putin gave the West its lesson on Feb 24. Now it is acting accordingly.

[ozimoron]

Governments can either come up with a collaborative and urgent plan to tackle the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency that is already wreaking deadly havoc across the globe or keep allowing corporations to pollute the atmosphere without limit, thereby condemning humanity to a grim future.

 

That stark warning comes from United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who said Monday: "We have a choice. Collective action or collective suicide."

 

https://www.rawstory.com/collective-action-or-collective-un-chief-pleads-for-real-climate-response/

[Stargeezr]

ozimoron, what a moniker.  Have you seen the graph below? Did you know

that CO2 was a trace gas just like methane?  No well, well.

[placeholder]

4 minutes ago, Stargeezr said:

ozimoron, what a moniker.  Have you seen the graph below? Did you know

that CO2 was a trace gas just like methane?  No well, well.

And what relevance do you believe that the level of CO2 in the atmosphere, or methane, for that matter, has to the issue of global warming?

[BritManToo]

7 hours ago, placeholder said:

And what relevance do you believe that the level of CO2 in the atmosphere, or methane, for that matter, has to the issue of global warming?

I don't believe CO2 in the atmosphere has any relevance to the climate at all.

Just like I don't believe the sea is rising or the sky is falling.

Edited July 19, 2022 by BritManToo

[metisdead]

An off topic post and a reply has been removed.

[ozimoron]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

I don't believe CO2 in the atmosphere has any relevance to the climate at all.

Just like I don't believe the sea is rising or the sky is falling.

Any link to evidence for this? Or just a religious belief so no evidence needed?

[placeholder]

4 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I don't believe CO2 in the atmosphere has any relevance to the climate at all.

Just like I don't believe the sea is rising or the sky is falling.

 

Well, what you've got is a problem with physics dating back almost 200 year when the great Irish physicist John Tindall proved ethe warming capacity of CO2. 

 

John Tyndall FRS (/ˈtɪndəl/; 2 August 1820 – 4 December 1893) was a prominent 19th-century Irish physicist. His initial scientific fame arose in the 1850s from his study of diamagnetism. Later he made discoveries in the realms of infrared radiation and the physical properties of air, proving the connection between atmospheric CO₂ and what is now known as the greenhouse effect in 1859.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tyndall

 

As for sea level rise:

 

"Since the early 1990s, satellites carrying radar altimeters have been tracking the changing height of the ocean surface, and show that global mean sea level has risen, on average, by just over 3 mm every year and, worryingly, that this rate of rise has increased in recent years."

https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/New_satellite_data_techniques_reveal_coastal_sea-level_rise#:~:text=Since the early 1990s%2C satellites,has increased in recent years.

 

Satellites show warming is accelerating sea level rise

"Melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are speeding up the already fast pace of sea level rise, new satellite research shows.

At the current rate, the world’s oceans on average will be at least 2 feet (61 centimeters) higher by the end of the century compared to today, according to researchers who published in Monday’s Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences."

https://apnews.com/article/north-america-science-us-news-ap-top-news-climate-cf2f9386c024449aae126351d6c67cde