Gas Is Europe's Next Battlefield

Gas. I don't even like to call it natural. It's no more natural than coal or oil, so why should we call it that? So yes, that's the gas I'm going to talk about now.

Gas is Europe's next battlefield. Coal and oil are on the way down to the drawer of history, and renewables are undeniably our future in the medium to long run. But how fast do we get there?

The European Commission (the de facto government of the EU) is placing a strong bet on gas. Not only have its leaders lobbied the EIB to get funding for massive gas infrastructures, but its list of Projects of Common Interest includes thousands of kilometers of pipelines, loops, and stations.

Gas is still a fossil fuel but emits about half as much CO2 as coal when burnt. Other issues, like methane leaks, should be taken into account, as they can make gas the most polluting of hydrocarbons.

The EU imports 69% of its gas, and 42% of these imports come from one single supplier: Russia. If gas is the battlefield, one of the commission's main battle horses is energy security. Whether this is really an issue is also disputed.

This doesn't only happen in the EU. Recently, the murder of a Russian spy on British soil has made tension rise between London and Moscow. And again, the energy card has been played. But there's really nothing to be afraid of in Britain. Less than 1% of gas imports in the UK come from Russia.

This article's focus is quite local, and maybe you're not so interested if you don't live in the UK, but I must say, it's a fantastic, an excellent expert analysis of how gas systems work. At the same time, it shows the difference between great journalism and the usual scare tactics from The Sun. There's not even a competition. Simon Evans just smashes the latter.

So if you, like me, get pleasure from seeing a great journalist obliterate the charlatans, read on. And even if you're not in the UK, you'll learn a lot about gas along the way.