European economy

The United States must once again come to the rescue of Europe because of policies they have pursued. It began, in earnest, with the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 where countries agreed to limit production of green house gas emissions. Europe, concerned about global warming, moved to replace fossil fuels with wind and solar. It was an emotional decision done without considering the long-term ramifications. First off Europe doesn’t have that much wind or sun and second, they didn’t consider the fact that both wind and solar are intermittent and need back up. Germany, the industrial powerhouse of Europe decided to shut down their coal plants along with their nuclear plants. Then they chose to stop using Russian natural gas and watched their energy cost quadruple. In 2008, the GDP per capita in Europe was 76% of the US and by 2023 that had fallen to 50%. Europe can no longer compete on the world market and production is moving to China and the US. One of the ironies is that Europe is using windmills and solar panels made in China where 60% of their energy comes from coal. The result is that Europe is now dependent on liquified natural gas (LNG) from America, where imports have increased from 4% to over 60% over the past five years. Without this LNG their economy would crash.