Putin's War to Expose Green Sabotage in US

Whether or not one believes allegations that Russia and China have been funding the "green" organizations whose work is helping to undermine energy security in the West, it is undeniable that Putin has used Europe's energy dependence on Russia as a weapon in his campaign to annex Ukraine.

As Europe has scrambled to replace some of the energy it can no longer pipe in, knock-on effects have followed, as Jazz Shaw notes at Hot Air. Among these effects will be severe energy shortages in the Northeast. Shaw quotes from the Wall Street Journal:

With emissions-free nuclear power deemed "unclean," criminalized, and made artificially expensive by nature cultists, this nuclear power plant has been closed for over a year. (Image by Tony, via Wikimedia Commons, license.)

New England, which relies on natural-gas imports to bridge winter supply gaps, is now competing with European countries for shipments of liquefied natural gas, following Russia's halt of most pipeline gas to the continent. Severe cold spells in the Northeast could reduce the amount of gas available to generate electricity as more of it is burned to heat homes.

The region's power-grid operator, ISO New England Inc., has warned that an extremely cold winter could strain the reliability of the grid and potentially result in the need for rolling blackouts to keep electricity supply and demand in balance. The warning comes as executives and analysts predict power producers could have to pay as much as several times more than last year for gas deliveries if severe weather creates urgent need for spot-market purchases. [bold added]

Shaw then indicates these outages and price spikes will have been in large part due to the policies of state-level politicians there:

... Utility companies in New York, Connecticut, and other New England states projected supply shortfalls more than a decade ago. Fortunately, New York and Pennsylvania sit on some of the richest natural gas resources in the country, found in the Marcellus shale deposits. The companies requested new, higher-volume pipelines to carry natural gas to meet the spiraling demands of New York City, particularly at the furthest end of the gas lines in Long Island. They also urged the development of local gas production to feed those lines. Similar situations were noted all across New England.

Instead of doing that, New York refused to approve new gas lines and passed a moratorium on natural gas drilling in the state. This brings us to the current situation where the same amount of natural gas is being used, but increasing amounts of it come in the form of LNG that has to be imported either from other regions of the country or from overseas. The energy crunch in Europe is eating up a lot of the available LNG, so there may not be enough for New England this winter. [bold added]

Shaw should have gone further, such as mentioning New York's closure of the perfectly good Indian Point nuclear plant in favor of ... more natural gas-fueled electricity plants.

If Republicans up there have half an ounce of sense, they will study what has effectively been the systematic sabotage of their region's power supply by the Democrats and formulate a positive, pro-freedom, pro-energy platform to offer relief to soon-to-be miserable voters and take advantage of the opportunity this crisis will present to undo decades of damage by environmentalists.

I know of someone who might provide very effective help in the matter, too.

-- CAV