From Moscow to Mar-a-Lago
Europe’s energy dependency has a new address. The continent has made a Faustian bargain with US LNG it doesn’t need.
For 80 years, Europe has allowed itself to become dependent on the United States in many different areas, from military defence to economic infrastructure to cultural consumption. But there was one area in which Europe was not US-dependent: energy.
That accolade went to Russia, starting with a series of pipeline deals between Western European countries and the Soviet Union in the 1970s that were meant to diversify supply away from an unstable Middle East. Europe would have happily added energy to its list of US dependencies, but until recently the US did not have the exportable surplus or the technology to get its oil and gas across the Atlantic. But now the shale gas boom, coupled with better technology to liquefy natural gas (LNG), has changed the game.
Member discussion: From Moscow to Mar-a-Lago
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