There’s No Such Thing as Secure Energy
Stability depends on a complex web of machinery, investment and military power, and it still fails regularly. Abandoning renewables won’t help.
The illusion of security.
Photographer: Alexandra Beier/Getty Images EuropeIt’s been said the best advertising utilities could do would be to cut off the power for an hour a day. What better way to demonstrate their indispensability?
Vladimir Putin doesn’t run a utility — not directly, anyway — but the Russian president has been described as an “energy geek.” What’s more, he seems to get the spirit of that cut-em-off-and-keep-em-keen marketing. Gazprom PJSC’s unusually low gas inventories across central Europe look rather conveniently timed (see this). And Putin has dangled the prospect of more gas if only *sigh* those Europeans would see sense and fast-track approval for Russia’s new pipeline.