Former Austrian Foreign Minister (2017-19), Dr. Karin Kneissl, in an op-ed appearing today in RT, said that the current energy crisis has been created by a number of bad policy decisions, which have ignored economic reality. In general, there has been a lack of development in new oil and gas fields. The fracking industry has failed. Affordable energy supply has been hampered by expensive CO2 certificates and unrealistic targets for industry.
In Germany, the electricity supply should have been expanded by 25% in the past two decades, but with Chancellor Merkel´s phasing out of nuclear energy in 2001, the target has not been reached. In 2013, Peter Altmaier, the Economics Minister, estimated that the “green revolution” would cost a trillion euros. Social unrest is not far away. The Yellow Vests in France are one example. She said that the German government has even produced a video on how to heat houses with candles.
In the recent election, energy was not a topic. Historically, energy policy has been driven by innovation (oil to nuclear), but now by emotional social media. On January 8, Central Europe almost collapsed, due to the acute threat of an energy blackout.
Dr. Kneissl, an opponent of western geopolitics against Russia, who danced with President Putin, whom she had invited to her wedding, left office after an entrapment scandal involving Chancellor Kurz’s conservative coalition party.
