Europe's Winter of Discontent

I am joined again by Mark Nelson to speak on the energy shocks
tearing through Europe and Asia. What are its causes, and what
will its consequences be?


The crisis comes on the heels of what academics and policymakers
thought was an energy transition away from fossil fuels. But as
countries pay record prices to scrap together enough coal, gas,
and oil to avoid shortfalls, we are seeing just how unprepared
they were for the fossil-free world they have been trying to
create. The procurement of low-carbon energy sources was
dominated by short-term thinking, favoring solar and wind over
nuclear power, and pre-emptively drawing the line in the sand for
fossil fuel investment.


Mark reflects on European energy decisions over the past decades,
the constant shaving down of reserve energy supplies for the sake
of avoiding “wastefulness”, and how during the energy crises of
the 1970s, some countries drew winning hands and others drew
losing hands in their responses. Namely, those who drew winning
hands built nuclear, and a lot of it.


Mark worries that “it’s not clear that Europe knows how to expand
energy production now, only reduce it.” Will this energy shock be
a tipping point? Will it have sobering effects on the debate over
the EU Green Taxonomy and the decision of whether to include
nuclear power?


As in the children’s story of the industrious ant and the
worry-free grasshopper, will this winter reveal the stark
differences between those who prepared and those who didn’t—those
who shored up their own low-carbon energy supply with nuclear,
and those who optimistically trotted down the path of solar,
wind, interconnections, nuclear phase-outs, and gas imports?