1/27 How Russia bought the #Energiewende. North Stream 2: Almost 200 million euros - that's how lavishly Gazprom endowed the climate foundation. 🧵https://t.co/C93gmpTZzU via @welt
welt.de/politik/deutsc…
2/27 This blatant corruption not only harms legitimate climate and environmental activism, but also destroys our energy security. NS Start of construction - Trittin: More supply security through Nord Stream gas pipeline 🧵
op-marburg.de/Mehr/Welt/Wirt…
3/27 But first, some context: Since the pro-Western elections in Ukraine in 2005, Russia has wanted to exclude Ukraine from natural gas supplies. The goal was to install a pro-Russian government.
4/27 However, this was impossible, as it would also interrupt supplies to other Western customers
5/27 At that time, the green and coal-friendly SPD governments in Germany agreed to initiate the #Energiewende. Both parties agreed to first phase out CO2-free nuclear energy.
6/27 Coal should be kept longer and then later switched to "temporary natural gas". The whole thing to force more renewables. A political lazy political compromise. The basis for later corruption.
7/27 Germany's transition began with a huge push for renewables (good) and a similarly big push for building a fleet of "state-of-the-art" and "high-tech" coal-fired power plants (bad).
8/27 Have you noticed this "bump"? Those are "Schröder's coal babies" replacing the old coal. Everyone was happy. At that point, everyone more or less agreed that coal had no long-term future. Now came the natural gas!
9/27 To compensate for fluctuating amounts of wind and solar power and to replace nuclear power, flexible natural gas was marketed as a "transition fuel" and a "great friend of renewables." But where was Germany going to get any amount of cheap gas?
10/27 Gerhard, this is Vladimir. Vladimir, this is Gerhard. This was always a dream business for both of them. Buddies for life. The Eastern European countries grumbled, they KNEW Putin had a long term goal.
11/27 But they were dismissed as "Russophobic" by "Russophobes," Putin apologists, and appeasers. Gerhard thought he could "civilize" Putin's Russia by doing business.
spiegel.de/politik/auslan…
12/27 For anyone living near Russia (already bombed like Georgia in 2008 or not yet like Ukraine), this was criminally naive.
13/27 Nord Stream 1 was built, but it was not enough to secure supplies to Ukraine, so a second pipeline was planned. Germany wanted to become a gas hub for Europe while promising security to Ukraine.
14/27 For Putin's plan to work, one more thing had to be blocked: Germany's LNG ports. For Germany to be truly dependent on Russia and thus obedient, there should be no alternative gas supply options for Germany.
15/27 In Europa bedeutet dies die Verschiffung von LNG aus Katar und den USA. Sehen Sie sich diese Karte an, warum gibt es keine LNG-Häfen in Deutschland? Seltsam, oder?
16/27 In 2011, the CEOs of NGO`s BUND, WWF and NABU simultaneously quit their jobs and joined a new NGO, funded with a substantial donation from Gazprom, to "protect" the Baltic Sea.
17/27 The argument was that gas pipelines are much more environmentally friendly because (US) LNG ships pollute the Baltic Sea. And Russia.
18/27 Until 2011, a new gas pipeline had many opponents among German environmentalists, but after Gazprom's donation, the three CEOs changed their minds.
19/27 Maybe they realized that gas is irreplaceable in the energy transition? Or maybe they just wanted to retire to a nice, cozy workplace.
20/27 The whole affair was so scandalous that BUND published a statement that it would never accept money from Gazprom of other affiliated companies.
21/27 But in principle they agreed that Gazprom: ➡️the lesser evil. ➡️ right - that shipping LNG is BAD. ➡️Ukraine can be ignored for the right amounts of money #Energiewend corrupt !
22/27 Over the years, there have been several attempts to achieve Germany's gas independence from Russia. All failed. https://t.co/zkHL2JqzdP via @WSJ
wsj.com/articles/in-wi…
23/27 Why ? There was a danger that Germany would fall into a trap and hinder itself in establishing an independent and sovereign energy supply.
24/27 Many in Europe oppose Donald Trump for the right reasons (e.g., climate change denial). But when he talked about these things spoke, he was SPOT ON. When he brought it up at the UN, he was laughed at by the German delegation.
25/27 And today ? Who is laughing now? Almost nobody. It is war. People are dying. The last nuclear power plants are shut down.
26/27 Moral of the story: ➡️Antinuclearism in Europe threatens our climate goals AND our physical security. ➡️Activism without critical thinking can actually do more harm than good ➡️Activism MUST be scientifically based, otherwise it will just be noise26/26
27/27 That's a wrap! If you enjoyed this thread: 1. Follow me @energiegruppen for more of these 2. RT the tweet below to share this thread with your audience
