US calls on Europe to wean itself from Russian gas
BRUSSELS (AP) -- The United States called on Europe to wean itself from a dangerous dependency on Russian gas, saying it was time to stand together and bring an end to the Kremlin's use of energy supplies as political leverage.
Left unsaid was the European Union's reluctance to follow the United States headlong into shale gas extraction, which has transformed the global energy scene and turned the U.S. from importer into a nascent exporter. Or its refusal to fully re-embrace nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster in Japan.
And even if it tried to become independent, it would take Europe years to develop promising sources, such as shale deposits in Ukraine and Poland - and with no guarantees of success.
Europe's reliance on Russia for a third of its energy needs has left the Kremlin in a position of power, emboldening it as it swept in to annex the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine last month, with little more than diplomatic protest and a few sanctions in return.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_UKRAINE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-04-02-15-20-36
"it would take Europe years to develop promising sources" - estimate is 2030 earliest to fully develop alternative supply from the USA and even that would assume the price of gas remained linked to the price of oil. That assumption is suspect and if freed off price of gas would plummet leaving the economics of fracking suspect too.
= new reply since forum marked as read
