Russian President Vladimir Putin controls about 42 percent of the world's nuclear fuel, and may be able to send electricity prices soaring if he withholds supplies.
The problem for Europe is that there is no readily available replacement for Russian energy available. Europe is already buying rebranded Russian energy from countries like China and India at a signficant markup. If Europe doesn’t want to deal with Russia directly then they’ll likely end just end up getting the same oil and gas through resellers.
US has its own energy, but with the strategic reserve running dry, it’s not in a great position either. US is also charging Europe a far higher amount for its energy than Russia did.
This is the core problem for Europe right now. There is less overall energy available and the energy that’s available is being sold at much higher cost. This means that input costs are rising across the board. It’s much more expensive to do manufacturing, it’s more expensive to deliver goods, it’s more expensive to heat homes, etc.
With the costs going up, it’s becoming uncompetitive to do manufacturing in Europe. This is forcing businesses to either close down or move to places like China leaving people unemployed. With high unemployment and rising cost of living, the consumer demand is dropping which continues to destabilize the economy.
Green energy will look more appealing, but creating that infrastructure will take years and will take significant amounts of energy to do. It’s not clear what options Europe has in the near future.
The problem for Europe is that there is no readily available replacement for Russian energy available. Europe is already buying rebranded Russian energy from countries like China and India at a signficant markup. If Europe doesn’t want to deal with Russia directly then they’ll likely end just end up getting the same oil and gas through resellers.
US has its own energy, but with the strategic reserve running dry, it’s not in a great position either. US is also charging Europe a far higher amount for its energy than Russia did.
This is the core problem for Europe right now. There is less overall energy available and the energy that’s available is being sold at much higher cost. This means that input costs are rising across the board. It’s much more expensive to do manufacturing, it’s more expensive to deliver goods, it’s more expensive to heat homes, etc.
With the costs going up, it’s becoming uncompetitive to do manufacturing in Europe. This is forcing businesses to either close down or move to places like China leaving people unemployed. With high unemployment and rising cost of living, the consumer demand is dropping which continues to destabilize the economy.
Green energy will look more appealing, but creating that infrastructure will take years and will take significant amounts of energy to do. It’s not clear what options Europe has in the near future.