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German officials issued a tentative sigh of relief last week, when Russian gas began flowing again through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to the European Union after its annual 10-day maintenance—only to have that relief turn to frustration a few days later, when the Russian company Gazprom announced it would further reduce the gas deliveries to just 20% of the pipeline’s capacity.
The reduced gas deliveries seemed to confirm many European leaders’ fears that Russia would use its energy supplies as leverage against its E.U. neighbors’ stance against the war in Ukraine. It also highlighted the bigger problem on the horizon: Germany, a country of 83 million and Europe’s biggest economy, is deeply dependent on Russian energy imports—essential for heating homes and powering German factories, among other things. What happens if, heading into this winter, Russia just cuts off the gas entirely?
German leaders are scrambling to prepare for that possibility and the larger energy crisis it could trigger, announcing a slate of new measures aimed at cutting gas consumption and readying other sources of energy to offset shortages. “Russia is using the great power it has… to blackmail Europe,” Robert Habeck, Germany’s vice-chancellor and economy minister, said last week. “We have to prepare ourselves for winter.”
As of the end of June, Germany had nearly cut the proportion of its gas supply coming from Russia in half, from 55% in February before the Ukraine invasion, to 26%. Still, experts say it’s not enough to ensure a shortage-free winter.
In the meantime, soaring energy prices and high inflation mean Germany has already been feeling the effects of the energy crisis. On Friday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the bailout of energy supplier Uniper, the country’s largest Russian gas…
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Source : time
