Western leaders are madder than I thought

 Unherd

Europe is belatedly grappling with the (entirely foreseeable) consequences of imposing sanctions on Russia. The Nord Stream pipeline has been intermittently closed over the summer, reportedly for “maintenance” (which no one believes). Another closure has just been announced.

As a result, prices are rocketing across the continent, with the ripple effects already being felt by businesses and consumers. 

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From the comments:

"This certainly has to do with Russian sanctions, but that isn’t the whole story… by any stretch.The serious misery we are only just beginning to experience is far more the result of decades of short-termist policy making re energy security, and pandering (and I would argue ‘elite capture’ – an almost cult-like groupthink among the elite/governing classes) and their naive wholesale stampede toward the ruinous policy of Net Zero …well before we have any adequate infrastructure or technology in place to replace the ‘old’ energy types [namely oil, coal and gas]."

"The rot started in 1997 when Blair stopped all new nuclear projects and was made worse by Milliband’s disastrous 2008 Climate Change Act. The 2010 coalition continued the nonsense with the LibDems insisting on having the Energy Department under their control.
And yes, it’s got worse since 2015 with undeliverable policies on gas boilers, petrol/diesel vehicles and heat pumps making a bad situation worse.
All political parties have been singing from the same hymn sheet and now we haven’t got a prayer."

 "This article completely misses the point – this energy and cost of living crisis was not caused by western leaders’ failure to appease an aggressive tyrant’s unprovoked invasion of a democratic neighbour, but by them adopting energy policies which allowed them to become dependent on and at the mercy of this particular tyrant for many of their energy needs in the first place. An ultra-nationalist bully like Vladimir Putin was always going to start a major war eventually, and now he has."

"If the West had not thoroughly embraced Green energy and gone away from reliable, cheap coal and nuclear it would not be in the big crunch it is in now.
It will take more than 100 years to displace fossil fuels, if they even need to be displaced (AGW is BS). What is the big rush? Why immiserate the people for a pipe dream? (Oh, yeah, it makes them feel virtuous!)"