Jordan McGillis of the Institute for Energy Research writes about economic dependence on Russia and China:
Too late for its energy security and, more obviously, too late for the Ukrainians, the Germans have realized the folly of energy alignment with a geopolitical foe. As Russian forces gathered on the border with Ukraine in February, new German chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a certification halt to Nord Stream 2. As the invaders moved deep into Ukraine, Scholz announced that Germany will increase its strategic reserves of natural gas and coal. Even with these changes, though, Germany refuses to starve the Russian war machine by abstaining from its energy exports altogether. Inexplicably, the German government decided on March 9 not to extend the lifespan of the country’s existing nuclear facilities. Decades of policy errors associated with the Energiewende, coupled with a refusal to devote adequate funds for defense, have rendered Germany tottering geopolitically.
Glaring as Germany’s shortsightedness now appears, the U.S. is stumbling into an analogous trap with our primary geopolitical opponent. Menacing though Russia is, for the United States, the long-term challenge is China, a state seeking to establish hegemony in the world’s most populous and most economically dynamic region, the Asia-Pacific. This century’s global politics will be defined by Sino-American competition in that region — and the world more broadly. Amid this reality, the United States ought to reconsider an energy and environmental orientation that favors China.
Read the whole thing here.