Euro News: 'EU Unveils New Energy Strategy to End Gas Cuts'

Source:Euro News- Gunther Oettinger: EU Commissioner For Energy.

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From Wikipedia 

"The EU has unveiled a new energy strategy it says will help it avoid possible shortages arising from gas disputes between Russia and Ukraine.  Europe imports more than 60 percent its gas, most of it from Russia.  

Brussels has long recognised the need to diversify sources after some EU countries suffered supply cuts during price rows between Moscow and Kiev. The Commission's energy chief Günther Oettinger said the new strategy would make the bloc's gas stocks less vulnerable to interruptions beyond its control. Euro News" 

From Euro News

I'm glad that the European Union has come out with their own energy policy which will be a big help for them and their economy as far as them being able to produce their only energy sources and creating jobs in Europe and putting Europeans to work. Which will also benefit their foreign policy and environmental policy as well, as fiscal policy, because it would get them off of foreign oil and gas or at least non- European oil and gas. 

The European Union is not technically a country, yet and it would also help their environmental policy, because it would allow them to use renewable energy sources creating an alternative energy industry in Europe. 

This would also help Europe's fiscal policy and allow them to pay down their debts and deficits, because this would be a boost to their economy with all of the jobs that they would create. This all sounds great right, but how is this great for America? 

I'm talking here about a European energy policy, not an American energy policy. The same benefits that could come to Europe because of this, could come to America as well. How long as a country have we've been talking about the need for a national energy policy: forty years. Ut goes back to the Nixon Administration with the 1973 Middle Eastern Oil Embargo. 

President Ford took up energy to a certain extent. President Carter had some success at getting some reforms in on conservation. And things like solar and wind. And President W. Bush managed to get an energy policy through Congress in 2005. That was mostly about oil and gas, at least it was American oil and gas, but mostly subsidy's to these company's that are already doing very well. 

But six years later we are still in this debate about having a national energy policy because we still don't have one. What we need is a comprehensive energy policy that moves America towards energy independence. We have the most natural resources in the world or we only trail Russia, but yet we aren't energy independent. Because we don't have a national energy policy, which is why we import oil and natural gas from other countries. Even though we have plenty of both to help move us towards energy independence. Not by themselves but part of a broader energy package. 

We have a whole menu of energy sources that we don't use that could also help move us towards energy independence. To go along with oil and gas but natural gas, clean coal, solar wind, nuclear, electricity, water. But we haven't developed these resources, which is why we are still dependent on foreign nations, because we don't have a national energy policy. 

And we also need to conserve more, use less of wasteful and dirty energy by taxing, perhaps taxing low mileage autos like SUV's. And perhaps subsidizing at least in the short-term clean energy that America has a market for and can help move us towards energy independence. 

An energy policy that moves you towards energy independence is just as beneficial in Europe as it's in America, as long as both have their own energy policy's. And develop their own energy sources. And if Europe can do this, then so can America which has a lot more natural resources.