In September of 2018, then-President Donald Trump was laughed at for warning European nations of their overreliance on Russian for their energy needs.
“Reliance on a single foreign supplier can leave a nation vulnerable to extortion and intimidation,” he said at the time.
Well, on Wednesday, Trump was proven right yet again when the Austrian government moved to bail out Wien Energie.
According to AP News, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has placed a strain on the European electricity and gas markets.
This has forced companies like Wien Energie to face incredible financial woes.
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The company, run by the city of Vienna, serves as many as 2 million customers, AP News reported.
Similarly, Sweden’s government has offered to provide “liquidity guarantees” to energy utilities from the Nordic and Baltic countries, according to BNN Bloomberg.
As energy bailouts continue, Trump’s 2018 prediction continues to look more accurate. This is especially the case when it comes to Germany, which is often regarded as the world’s golden-standard producer of green energy. For instance, over a decade ago, Renewable Energy World praised the country for being “the world’s first major renewable energy economy.”
Despite this, Germany is facing just as much of a crisis as the rest of Europe.
Should European leaders have listened to warnings about reliance on Russian energy?
And, even more so than other nations, Germany was warned by Trump himself. In fact, during that 2018 speech, Trump aimed his warning squarely at the country, warning that Germany would become “totally dependent on Russian energy” if its leaders did not change course.
Germany didn’t listen to the former American president and paid for refusing to do so.
After becoming overreliant on unreliable renewable energies like wind and solar, Germany was left vulnerable by its dependence on Russian gas and coal.
This resulted in skyrocketing energy prices.
In response, Germany was forced to increase the annual cost of household gas bills by nearly $500, Reuters reported on Aug. 15.
“The alternative would have been the collapse of the German energy market and, with it, large parts of the European energy market,” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said, according to Foreign Policy Magazine.
To think, only five short years ago, these people laughed Trump out of the room for suggesting this problem was on the horizon.
Now that energy prices are skyrocketing, European countries are scrambling to implement bailouts and price hikes in order to get things back on track.
The left-wing policies of Europe, particularly overreliance on the “green” energies, lead them into this predicament.
Maybe next time Trump sends them a warning, European leaders will have the sense to listen to him.
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