Europe’s Green Future Is Cold and Dark

Relying on clean energy sources such as wind and solar while ignoring energy security has proven disastrous for Europe

Steam rises from cooling towers of the Neurath coal-fired power plant as wind turbines spin over a field of rapeseed near Bedburg, Germany, on May 05, 2022. Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

Commentary

In the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, European Union nations are scrambling to source fossil fuels to run their factories and heat their homes this winter. They vigorously boycotted Russian natural gas and levied sanctions, you’ll recall, as a way of punishing Russia for its evil warring ways.

The Thrill of Virtue Signaling

The virtuous thrill of that moral spasm lasted for a few weeks at most. Then the EU, and especially Germany, suddenly remembered that their economies—really, their very lives—depend on replacing the natural gas that they stopped buying from Moscow. At the time of the invasion in late February, Germany relied on Russia for 50 percent of its energy supplies.