Quote Originally Posted by Surferbeetle View Post
Quote:
Die schwedische Regierung rügt das deutsch-russische Unternehmen Nord Stream und könnte somit für Verzögerungen des geplanten Ostseepipeline-Projekts sorgen. Nord-Stream-Chairman Gerhard Schröder ist nicht amüsiert: Denn hinter den Umweltauflagen verbergen sich weit tiefere Ängste der Skandinavier.
My translation…

“The Swedish Government has criticized the planned Baltic sea pipeline Nord Stream, a German-Russian undertaking, and can provide reasons why. Nord Stream’s Chairman Gerhard Schroder is not amused: Behind the environmental concerns are deeply buried Scandinavian fears. “
"The Swedish government admonished the German-Russian enterprise Nord-Stream and could cause delays in the planned Baltic Sea pipeline project by doing so. Nord-Stream-Chairman Gerhard Schröder is not amused: The reason is that deeply buried fears of the Skandinavians are behind the environmental regulations."


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First of all; the issue was solved with a ten-year treaty and shouldn't resurface unless one of the involved states break the treaty or enters a war.
That would be problems in their own right and wouldn't be pipeline-specific.

It's imho a waste of time to think about alternative routes for pipelines; new pipelines in Eastern Europe don't solve the other problem; the Europeans want to buy relatively cheap Russian gas (and the Russians want to sell it), but they want to diversify as well.

One approach is to increase the import of Algerian natural gas - with LNG technology. That means very short additional pipelines to specialized LNG terminals in some harbors. Projects for Wilhelmshafen and Rotterdam were or are in work.

Another approach is to decrease natural gas consumption - a typical European approach to energy supply problems since the 70's.

Natural gas has near-perfect substitutes in all its uses. Mankind does not need natural gas - it can do the same things with coal products.

* Natural gas replaced coal gas in the 70's for heating/cooking in residential areas (in Berlin and Eastern Europe only in the 90's).
* Natural gas powerplants are quick reaction peak supply tools, but not necessary for the base supply. Improved coal and even nuclear powerplant technologies can replace it in that role (and a special type of water power, but not on large scale).
* Natural gas is also in use in steel production. Alternative technologies use electricity and/or coke as far as I know.
* Natural gas-driven vehicles: No need for such a thing, it's a stupid idea anyway.

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The real challenge is to find issues where we can cooperate with Russia and turn them (and us) away from a "us vs. them" line of thinking. Let them worry about China, not us. Our politicians should not just have meetings with Putin & his clique, but also reach out to the Russian people.
There are opportunities - we would just need to use them.


It's so much cheaper and more pleasant to solve the situation the smart way with diplomacy and cooperation instead of a easy&primitive fall back to the wasteful Cold War.
At least some people should have understood by now that the Western World isn't in great shape, has huge society, state & fiscal challenges now and ahead - and that we could ill afford such a wasteful path as another Cold War.