EU Natural Gas Dependence Is Like US Oil Dependence

Trump’s new attack on the EU and Germany is their dependence on Russian Natural Gas, and the completion of a northern pipeline through the Baltic Sea,, called Nord Stream, which bypasses the one through Ukraine, which Ukraine can block. Germany gets 35% of its natural gas from Russia, and the EU gets 37%.  Trump called Germany a “captive ” of Russia.

This seems like a one way dependency. However, about 50% of the Russian Federal income comes from fossil fuels. Not to mention the wealth of the oligarchs. Russia can no more afford to shut their resources off, than Northern European countries can live without heat in the winter.

As far as natural gas for electrical power, Germany and the EU are committed to the Paris Agreement, and will maximize both renewables and nuclear power.  Germany only gets 9% of its power from Russia.  Trump took the US out of the Paris Agreement.

Germany is shutting down nuclear, but has abundant wind power.  France is still developing nuclear, while the US is only building one new nuclear plant.  They are abandoning coal, just like the US is, for economic and health reasons, as well as reducing greenhouse gases.  But Trump was also pushing coal.  Isn’t that like bringing coals to Newcastle.

But for Trump, Presidents’ whose supporters live in houses with gas guzzling SUVs, shouldn’t throw rockets. The US also depends heavily on foreign countries for its oil and gasoline needs. I covered this in a post a year ago on July 1, 2017. I am going to be brief, and just reuse that data. I also showed how California had to depend on foreign oil, since it is rather isolated from out-of-state US oil fields.

Using 2016 data, daily US imports were 10.6 million barrels, but with 5.19 million in exports. The point is that it is a big country, with oil going in and out at different locations. Still, the imports were about half of US oil usage, making us very dependent on foreign sources.

The top countries for US imports were Canada, 38%, Saudi Arabia 11%, Venezuela 8%, Mexico 7%, and Colombia 5%. These account for 69% of our imports. While Trump is busy raising tariffs on foreign steel using a national security threat category, he has included Canada and Mexico. Saudi Arabia is hardly a Democratic country, and the money we pay them for oil goes to strengthen their Kingdom, which buys large amounts of US arms for Middle East dominance. Venezuela is hardly a Democracy, and Columbia has drug problems.

So you can raise the same arguments Trump did on Russian dependence and funding them. Except most Americans look on Canada and Mexico as important and dependable allies

For California, 55% of our oil was from foreign sources. Our top import sources were Saudi Arabia 34%, Ecuador 23%, Columbia 14%, Kuwait 9%, and Iraq 4%. These made up 85% of California’s imports. While the US only depended for 11% of imports on Saudi Arabia, California depends on it for 34% of our imports. However, California’s imports were only 9% of US net imports, so the US is still contributing more to Saudi Arabia, by an 11 to 3 ratio.

While criticizing Germany’s support for their Russian natural gas pipeline which has been contracted for for years, Trump forgot to mention his okay for the embattled Keystone pipeline from Canada, and how much it will fund their economy, and possible military increases, as Trump is demanding from NATO members.

If Germany is a “captive” of Russia, the US is a captive of Canada, and California is a captive of the Monarchy of Saudi Arabia.

About Dennis SILVERMAN

I am a retired Professor of Physics and Astronomy at U C Irvine. For two decades I have been active in learning about energy and the environment, and in reporting on those topics for a decade. For the last four years I have added science policy. Lately, I have been reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic of our times.
This entry was posted in Affairs of State, Clean Energy, Donald Trump, Fossil Fuel Energy, Paris Climate Accord, Paris Climate Agreement, Renewable Energy. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply