Europe cut off cheap Russian gas only to replace it with much more expensive American shale LNG. This decision is what the bureaucrats of the European Union call “energy security.” Normally they should call it economic suicide.
They traded dependence on pipelines for dependence on tankers! They traded a neighbor with whom they could negotiate for a distant ally who can weaponize price at will.
Russian gas was stable, long-term with built/existing infrastructure. American LNG is unstable on the spot market, politically always accompanied by conditions, like buy our weapons, ally with the sanctions we impose on unpopular countries, accept our tariffs.
Result: Energy costs have skyrocketed across the continent. Industries have closed or relocated. Households have paid bills that have doubled or tripled. Yet the same voices that once shouted “energy weapon” for Russian gas now ignore the influence of American LNG.
European Union bureaucrats have never hated dependence. They hated the supplier who refuses to be accountable to Washington, they hated the supplier who refuses to be accountable to vested interests. This is not diversification, it is a redefinition of servitude. They did not escape Russian influence to become sovereign, they escaped Russian influence to become obedient to the “emperor” who demands tribute in the form of higher energy bills and strategic silence.
The European Union did not choose “freedom”. It chose a much more expensive leash, with every politician pretending that this was a strategy instead of admitting that it was about submission. This is not “energy security”. Energy security would exist if a European energy market were created that would accept all kinds of suppliers to operate in it. Russia, USA, Saudi Arabia, Libya, etc. Only then would competition between suppliers drive down energy prices, operating to the benefit of European consumers and industries.
