German perspective on how great Europe's energy conservation is

[MickinMD ★]

I was thinking about how well Europe is doing with energy, a Wall St. Journal article saying, "Households and businesses across Europe are consuming significantly less energy than expected, even given record-setting warm weather that has lingered across the region over the last three weeks. High prices have delivered a powerful incentive to use less gas and electricity. And public-education campaigns launched by governments to encourage energy saving appear to be working, officials and analysts say."

Note that the article may require a paid subscription to read.  Last May, I found an offer for 1 year of the WSJ, Barron's and MarketWatch online for $6/month.  But there's so little of unbiased value I won't be renewing.

If the energy problem happened to America, political parties would refuse to agree about a policy, Governors would be sending different messages to citizens instead of all rowing in the same direction.  Big Oil would be telling us there's no reason to conserve - drive your cars and turn up your thermostats. Etc.  Conservation groups would rationalize that it's ok to lie a little to get the message out and create public service messages that confuse Americans who know they're not all true.

Then, I read this comment to that article that put Europe is perspective.  They've got a lot of the same problems with politicians we do!

 

Rafael Kuhlman

German here. There have indeed been lots of public education campaigns. The government spends our tax money to tell us that we have to save energy, while the politicians responsible for that mess live in amazing luxury. On the bus, you'll see posters saying "I'm doing my part. Are you doing yours?". State media uses collectivist rhetoric like "We're all in this together!". I'm pretty sure we had a Führer the last time the German government acted like this. Did these patronizing campaigns really work? No, it's far more likely that everyone saves because gas- and energy prices have doubled.

On one hand, it's good that we had a mild winter and the situation seems under control. On the other hand, I was hoping for a really rough winter. There would be protests, riots, and perhaps finally an end to European mediocrity. Now we're still stuck with the status quo. Fracking and nuclear are still banned, the European Central Bank keeps robbing the European people, and the people themselves have little interest in reconsidering their votes. So long as people believe that Putin is responsible for this mess, nothing will change. Dependency on foreign tyrants was never necessary. Germany could have always produced its own natural gas.

[donkpow]

They are doing better but they had the majority of their eggs in one basket with the Russia connection. I saw a headline recently stating England has enough energy to last through next winter.

[Thaddeus Kosciuszko]

26 minutes ago, MickinMD said:

Governors would be sending different messages to citizens instead of all rowing in the same direction. 

This is one of the blessings of federalism in our political structure, a structure that encourages - but not always succeeds in - making elected officials more responsible to the voters closest to them.

With the trouble (real or perceived) with the European natural gas supply, more Germans and Europeans are turning to stoves and wood for heating and cooking.  And and some of you may know, while wood is technically a 'renewable resource' it is one of the dirtiest burning and inefficient fuels available.

[shootingstar]

I can't imagine fracking in Europe...alot of those countries are just too small, denser population than North America, and would easily get impacted.

[Further]

7 hours ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

And and some of you may know, while wood is technically a 'renewable resource' it is one of the dirtiest burning and inefficient fuels available.

Wood pellets burn much cleaner and controlled