{"id":47965,"date":"2019-08-26T06:22:22","date_gmt":"2019-08-26T11:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=47965"},"modified":"2019-08-26T06:22:24","modified_gmt":"2019-08-26T11:22:24","slug":"will-europe-ever-shake-its-dependence-on-russian-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=47965","title":{"rendered":"Will Europe Ever Shake Its Dependence On Russian Energy?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Will Europe Ever Shake Its Dependence On Russian Energy?<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"LNG\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Much of the current discourse over Europe\u2019s economic \u201cindependence\u201d has revolved around its increasingly-tense relationship with the Trump administration over foreign policy issues such as trade and Iran. This focus has sidelined another important development, however: portions of the European energy industry\u2014a major pillar of the single market\u2014are increasingly coming into Russian and Chinese hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In spite of impending American sanctions and widespread opposition including from within the European bloc, Nord Stream 2<\/a>\u2014Gazprom\u2019s $11 billion natural gas pipeline running underneath the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany\u2014 is nearing completion<\/a>. Meanwhile, China has gone after energy prizes all over the union. As just one noteworthy example, state-owned utility China Three Gorges\u2014 already the largest<\/a> shareholder in Energias de Portugal\u2014 mounted<\/a> a colossal $10.8 billion bid to take over the entire Portuguese grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The uptick in Moscow and Beijing\u2019s investments in nearly every aspect of Europe\u2019s energy industry\u2014from fossil fuels to renewables and power generation to energy infrastructure\u2014have drawn criticism from both within the EU and abroad. Particular concerns have been raised over European unity<\/a> and unfair competition<\/a>. If unaddressed, these geopolitical and commercial implications could drive a wedge between the U.S. and Europe while sowing serious divisions within the single European market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can Europe trust Russian gas?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Longstanding geopolitical conflicts and Cold War-era rhetoric have fueled the uneasiness around Russian energy investment in Europe. In May, U.S. Energy Secretary\u00a0Rick Perry<\/a>proposed a sanctions bill which would target companies, including a number of European firms, involved in the Nord Stream 2 project in an effort to stall construction on the controversial pipeline. Although Gazprom has obtained authorization from Russia, Finland, Sweden and Germany, it has encountered\u00a0resistance from Denmark<\/a>, which has yet to grant permission for the pipeline to pass through its territory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Will Europe Ever Shake Its Dependence On Russian Energy? Much of the current discourse over Europe\u2019s economic \u201cindependence\u201d has revolved around its increasingly-tense relationship with the Trump administration over foreign policy issues such as trade and Iran. This focus has sidelined another important development, however: portions of the European energy industry\u2014a major pillar of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[281,23083,827,2927,26594],"class_list":["post-47965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-geopolitics","tag-europe","tag-oil-price-com","tag-united-states","tag-us-sanctions","tag-wenyuan-wu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47966,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47965\/revisions\/47966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}