> I personally can't think of any other logical explication than German politicians having been "bought by Russians" to explain that decision.
German here. Russian gas was absurdly cheap, I paid 5ct/kWh in 2015 and that included taxes. Large industry which was exempted from at least some of these paid even less. There simply was no economically viable alternative, even renewables today are more expensive than Russian gas was back then.
Yes, there may also have been corruption involved as well (just look at former Chancellor Schröder who started the entire NS1/2 mess, Merkel just ran along with it), but the primary motivation always has been price.
Hell even the primary motivation for NS1/2 was price, as there are no transit fees associated with it, unlike Drushba/Soyuz. The second motivation obviously was to reduce the leverage of Ukraine.
Side note: Assuming a household with 12.000 kWh/a thermal energy consumption, that was 600€ a year/50€ a month back then. At current gas prices, it's ten times that... which is the cause for widespread discontent and outright existential fear in society at the moment. When you only have 200-300€ left after rent and necessities, 50€ for heating is manageable - but 500€ certainly is not, and the new gas prices representing the current future market prices that will hit in next year aren't even priced in.
> I definitely saw this kind of stuff coming like 10+ years ago as they went full steam ahead with energiewende.
Lol what? Energiewende? You mean Mr. Altmaier and his conservative friends sabotaging the wind and solar industry wherever they could, leading to well over 100k lost jobs [1]? Fuck that shit.
[1] https://www.iwr.de/news/erneuerbare-energien-beschaeftigen-u...
German here. Russian gas was absurdly cheap, I paid 5ct/kWh in 2015 and that included taxes. Large industry which was exempted from at least some of these paid even less. There simply was no economically viable alternative, even renewables today are more expensive than Russian gas was back then.
Yes, there may also have been corruption involved as well (just look at former Chancellor Schröder who started the entire NS1/2 mess, Merkel just ran along with it), but the primary motivation always has been price.
Hell even the primary motivation for NS1/2 was price, as there are no transit fees associated with it, unlike Drushba/Soyuz. The second motivation obviously was to reduce the leverage of Ukraine.
Side note: Assuming a household with 12.000 kWh/a thermal energy consumption, that was 600€ a year/50€ a month back then. At current gas prices, it's ten times that... which is the cause for widespread discontent and outright existential fear in society at the moment. When you only have 200-300€ left after rent and necessities, 50€ for heating is manageable - but 500€ certainly is not, and the new gas prices representing the current future market prices that will hit in next year aren't even priced in.
> I definitely saw this kind of stuff coming like 10+ years ago as they went full steam ahead with energiewende.
Lol what? Energiewende? You mean Mr. Altmaier and his conservative friends sabotaging the wind and solar industry wherever they could, leading to well over 100k lost jobs [1]? Fuck that shit.
[1] https://www.iwr.de/news/erneuerbare-energien-beschaeftigen-u...