European security officials observed Russian Navy ships near Nord Stream pipelines leaks https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/28/politics/nord-stream-pipeline-leak-russian-navy-ships/index.html European security officials on Monday and Tuesday observed Russian Navy ships in the vicinity of leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines likely caused by underwater explosions, according to Western intelligence officials and one other source. It's unclear whether the ships had anything to do with those explosions, these sources and others said -- but it's one of the many factors that investigators will be looking into. Russian submarines were also observed not far from those areas last week, one of the intelligence officials said. Three US officials said that the United States has no thorough explanation yet for what happened, days after the explosions that caused three separate and simultaneous leaks in the two pipelines on Monday. Russian ships routinely operate in the area, according to one Danish military official, who emphasized that the presence of the ships doesn't necessarily indicate that Russia caused the damage. "We see them every week," this person said. "Russian activities in the Baltic Sea have increased in recent years. They're quite often testing our awareness – both at sea and in the air." But the sightings still cast further suspicion on Russia, which has drawn the most attention from both European and US officials as the only actor in the region believed to have both the capability and motivation to deliberately damage the pipelines. US officials declined to comment on the intelligence about the ships on Wednesday. The prime ministers of both Denmark and Sweden said on Tuesday that the leaks were likely the result of deliberate actions, not accidents, and Sweden's security service said in a statement Wednesday that it cannot be ruled out "that a foreign power is behind it." US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Tuesday evening also called the leaks "apparent sabotage" in a tweet. But senior Western officials have so far stopped short of attributing the attack to Russia or any other nation. The Kremlin has publicly denied striking the pipelines. A spokesman called the allegation "predictably stupid and absurd." CNN has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment on the presence of the ships.
Russian Sabotage Of The Nord Stream Pipeline Marks A Point Of No Return https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielc...ne-mark-a-point-of-no-return/?sh=41e9b48a5dba
Germany introduces €200B gas price cap to counter Russia’s ‘energy war’ Planned economic safeguard measure would cost billions, requiring a derogation from German debt rules. https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-set-to-introduce-gas-price-cap/ BERLIN — The German government will take on €200 billion in fresh debt to implement a gas price cap aimed at shielding consumers and companies from high energy costs, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced Thursday. "The German government will do everything in its power to bring [energy] prices down," Scholz said at a press conference in Berlin, which he attended virtually as he is still in quarantine following a COVID-19 infection. "We are now putting up a large defensive umbrella ... which we will endow with €200 billion." The announcement followed days of negotiations between the Social Democratic chancellor, Economy Minister Robert Habeck from the Greens and Finance Minister Christian Lindner from the liberal Free Democrats on how to respond to what Lindner described as an “energy war” launched by Russia. “This decision is a crystal clear answer to [Russian President Vladimir Putin],” Lindner said at the press conference. “We are economically strong, and we mobilize this economic strength when necessary.” Under the proposed scheme, the state will set a limit for gas prices and pay the difference between that cap and what gas importers pay on the world market. Major German energy suppliers like Uniper have found themselves in severe financial straits after Russia halted gas supplies to Germany, as it forced them to compensate for missing volumes with expensive last-minute purchases on the world market. The government previously planned to compensate suppliers for the increased import costs using a gas price surcharge to be paid by customers. The scheme, which would have increased energy bills and faced strong backlash, will now be scrapped, Scholz said. The current plan for a gas price cap will require taking on large amounts of new debt — also a politically sensitive issue, with Lindner previously insisting that Germany must adhere to its constitutionally enshrined debt brake next year. Under the proposed compromise, the government will use a derogation to finalize the gas price cap via a special fund that falls outside the debt brake rule. The government will use an economic stabilization fund that was initially set up to cushion companies from the fallout of the coronavirus crisis. “We want to clearly separate crisis spending from our regular budget management,” Lindner said, insisting that the German government remained committed to a conservative fiscal policy that aims to limit inflation, which is expected to reach 10 percent in Germany. “We want to send a very clear signal to the capital markets: Even if we now use such a defensive umbrella, Germany will stick to its stability-oriented, sustainability-oriented fiscal policy,” Lindner said, adding: “German government bonds remain the gold standard in the world.” The finance minister also took a swipe at the new U.K. government, which announced a mini-budget last week that sparked the pound crashing to an all-time-low against the dollar and sent the cost of borrowing through the roof. "We are explicitly not following the U.K.’s example down the path of an expansionary fiscal policy," Lindner said.
This is an interesting story about a town in Germany who set themselves up as energy independent generating their own electricity and heat. The approach also touches on the concept of creating a local micro-grid for communities and not depending on large-scale hub & spoke electrical generation and transmission to power your homes. In one tiny German town, nobody worries about energy bills https://www.wsbtv.com/news/one-tiny-german-town/2Z2ZCDS7FMHGPWAGCZEV3FEH5A/ FELDHEIM, Germany — (AP) — Europeans are opening their energy bills with trepidation these days, bracing for hefty price hikes as utility companies pass on the surging cost of natural gas, oil and electricity tied to Russia's war in Ukraine. Many are trying to conserve by turning down the heat and shutting off lights this winter. Not so the people of Feldheim, population 130. Located about an hour and a half south of Berlin, this modest but well-kept village has been energy self-sufficient for more than a decade. A bold experiment launched in the mid-1990s saw Feldheim erect a handful of wind turbines to provide electricity to the village. Then it built a local grid, solar panels, battery storage and more turbines. A biogas plant put up to keep piglets warm was expanded, providing extra income to the farmers' cooperative, which pumps hot water through a village-wide central heating system. A hydrogen production facility is also under construction. Now, 55 wind turbines can be seen but not heard on the sloping farmlands around Feldheim and residents enjoy some of the cheapest electricity and natural gas rates in Germany. “They can all sleep well at night," says Kathleen Thompson, who works for a local educational organization, the New Energies Forum. "They’ve got no concerns because the prices are not going to change, not in the immediate future anyway.” Feldheim's hands-on approach to producing its own eco-friendly energy draws thousands of visitors from around the world each year and contrasts with the way Germany as a whole still relies on fossil fuel imports for much of its needs. That became painfully apparent when Russia invaded Ukraine, upending the reliance Germany and other European countries had on Moscow's coal, oil and natural gas. Despite Germany pumping billions into the growth of renewable energy to reduce climate-changing emissions, fossil fuels and nuclear were responsible for more than half of the country's gross power production in the first six months of the year. A lack of sufficient transmission capacity means wind parks in the north regularly have to be shut down while fossil fuel plants are fired up to provide electricity to factories in the south. Letting locals participate in — and benefit from — the project was key to Feldheim's success, said Michael Knape, mayor of Treuenbrietzen, a municipality to which Feldheim belongs. While wind parks elsewhere in Germany often face opposition, including some economically depressed neighboring villages, Feldheim's close-knit community approved so many turbines that it actually exports about 250 times as much electricity as it consumes. “Citizens need to feel that it’s their transition and not one imposed from above,” Knape said. But he also credits authorities at the time with not interfering in what he describes as an “experiment” that could have failed. It fell into a legal gray area that officials elsewhere might have clamped down on. “In Germany, you sometimes get the impression that if someone makes a mistake then it’s a huge problem," Knape said. "But it’s only in that way that we make progress.” Feldheim's grassroots approach to generating clean energy contrasts starkly with the prevailing practice in Germany, where large energy companies tend to build and control vast power projects. Small-scale efforts, meanwhile, often face high regulatory hurdles. Still, Knape is hopeful that Germany’s energy transition can catch up with Feldheim. “I’m firmly convinced that given the current pressure in Europe ... it’s become clear to everyone that we need to approach this differently than before,” he said. While Feldheim's approach can't be copied everywhere, such projects can be a big part of the solution, Knape said. “Many little Feldheims could supply at least parts of Berlin." Siegfried Kappert, 83, is similarly optimistic. Born and bred in Feldheim, he enthusiastically paid the 3,000-euro (dollar) fee to connect his home to the electricity and heating grids when they were built. That investment has paid off manifold since, with lower energy prices for him and the village, which has no unemployment and was recently able to afford new pavements, streetlights and a cultural venue in a converted barn topped with solar panels. Kappert laments that longtime former Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed Germany to become dependent on Russian energy and feels her conservative Union bloc, now in opposition, should stop sniping at the new government. “They should work together, that would be the right way,” he said. Kappert, who as a child saw the Red Army roll in at the end of World War II, then grew up under communism in East Germany and saw his world turned upside down again with reunification, said Feldheim’s success is a source of satisfaction. “We looked for a path and found one," he said. "I can say, quite honestly, that we’re proud of this.”
It benefits the boyz over at the Pentagon and our Authoritarian war mongering government. When the gang wants a war, there will be a fucking war. All the Ruskies had to do was turn it off, no need to blow it up. The only people believing this American propaganda are incredibly stupid and/or political bias to the point of abject idiocy. Add in the normalization of using nukes as they mention it all day every day and we can expect this one to be a real deal war. They're chomping at the bit.
Liberalism is a mental disorder. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...TED-trying-pass-medical-records-Russians.html
Germany will continue buying natural gas from Russia because they have no other way of getting it. Since, the big fanfare of total ban on Russian oil and natural gas, India and China have been buying Russian oil and natural gas at a discount. Then, flipping it by selling it to Europe at full market price. So, it is all talk while, indirectly, Europe still continues to buy natural gas from Russia although, they go thru India or China in the process. Now, that they have permanently, blown up and destroyed the Nordstream Pipelines 1 & 2, natural gas to Europe now has to travel by ship (natural gas shipping is dominated by China), so China ends up with profits on natural gas plus the shipping costs on top of that. The Philippines has also, said it will start to buy Russian oil. Makes perfect sense when they used to import it by tanker, all the way from Saudi Arabia. Russia is closer and the shipping costs should be less in the process. OPEC has said, it will cut its oil production which is fully supported by Russia. Higher oil prices on the way up after the US strategic oil reserves are completely dried up. Joe Biden has been drawing oil from it to sell it to Europe at cheap prices which explains oil going down. Atleast, until it is all totally gone.