Putin tries to save his dream with the help of former German socialist leaders

As we have noted, Vladmir Putin is desparately trying to save his crumbling house of cards - built on the dream of ever higher gas prices in a market dominated by the Russian energy giant Gazprom. But, as we also have noted, Putin will not be able to stop the American led shale gas revolution, which will put and end to Gazprom´s (and Putin´s) dream. Ultimately this development will also mean the end of the corrupted mafia state created by the former KGB officer.

Henning Voscherau and his new benefactor

But you cannot blame Putin for not trying: Now he has chosen another leading former German social democratic politician to head the South Stream pipeline project (Putin´s admirer and friend, former chanchellor Gerhard Schröder is in charge of the Nord Stream project together with another "friend", former Stasi agent Matthias Warnig):

Gazprom chief Aleksei Miller has nominated the former mayor of Hamburg, Henning Voscherau, to head the board of the Russia-backed South Stream pipeline project.

Miller on March 19 cited Voscherau's "experience in working with international organizations dealing with legal regulation" and said his "weighty authority will make him a considerable contribution to the successful and timely implementation of the South Stream project."

After serving as the first mayor of Hamburg, Voscherau is also a former president of Germany's upper house of parliament.

The South Stream natural-gas pipeline aims to carry some 63 billion cubic meters of Russian gas across southeastern Europe to points in Italy and Austria.

Vladimir Putin seems to hope that surrounding Europe from the North and the South with the help of two former German socialist leaders, will make it possible for Russia to achieve a dominating position. But even comrades Schröder and Voscherau will not be able to prevent the crumbling of Putin´s house of cards.

Of course, European governments should do what they can in order to shorten the process, as the prominent Die Welt correspondent Gerhard Gauck suggests in his recent article (unfortunately only in German).

However, there is one question that remains a mystery: Why is it that former German socialist leaders cannot resist enriching themselves personally, even if they know - or should know - that what they are doing is contrary to the national interests of their own country, and - above all - the interests of the former Russian satellite countries in Europe?

$21,000 Wind turbine saved $4 on Reno´s energy bill

Wind turbines seldom - if ever - produce the amounts of electricity that their manufacturers promise. The subsidized turbines installed in the city of Reno are just one example:


"the city of Reno's wind turbines -- for which the city received more than $150,000 in rate-payer funded rebates -- produced dramatically less electricity than the manufacturers of its turbines promised.
"These manufacturers, when they gave us the turbines, they said they were designed to be mounted on a parapet at this height, and that's what we did," said Jason Geddes, who runs the city of Reno's renewable energy program. "But when we started getting actual wind flow patterns, we realized their claims were wrong."

As first reported by the Reno Gazette-Journal, one turbine that cost the city $21,000 to install saved the city $4 on its energy bill. Overall, $416,000 worth of turbines have netted the city $2,800 in energy savings." 

Two more German solar power companies file for bankruptcy

  "HIGH YIELDS IN EVERY DIRECTION"

(Q-Cells webpage 2 April, 2012)

                                            "Q-Cells SE will file for insolvency proceedings on Tuesday, 3 April 2012, at the competent Insolvency Court in Dessau."

(Q-Cells webpage 2 April, 2012)

Q-Cells, the pride of the German solar power industry, today announced that it will file for bankruptcy. This is the fourth bankruptcy in the German solar power industry since December: 

The slump has been blamed on controversial cuts in state assistance and on imports of cheaper Chinese-made solar panels.

A decade ago, Germany stimulated a brand new solar-power industry with laws that required utilities to accept all electricity they were offered from private owners of solar panels.

Q-Cells, which manufactures black panels that convert sunlight into electricity, began as a story of high hopes, setting up its modern factory in the east German town of Bitterfeld-Wolfen.

But the industry has been squeezed as the state assistance has been cut back.

"Feed-in" tariffs, the artificially high price that utilities must pay for the energy, have been reduced by 50 per cent since their peak, and fell another 20 to 30 per cent at the start of this month.

Today also another German solar power company, Odersun, filed for bankruptcy:

With massive cuts to solar feed-in tariffs in Germany, another solar company has filed for bankruptcy. Frankfurt-based Odersun is expected to be closing its doors and laying off 260 people at the end of May.

The chain of bankruptcies in Germany is a sad consequence of Angela Merkel´s failed energy and environmental policy. And this is only the beginning ....

Putin tries to save Shtokman gas project by promising "favourable tax conditions"

The game is soon over for Putin´s  corrupted  KGB  led regime

Vladimir Putin and Gazprom - the government (Putin) controlled energy company that is the backbone of Putin´s corrupted empire - are well aware of the fact that the US led shale gas revolution has totally changed the international energy game. Still, the Russians do not seem to fully understand that their energy hegemony project has failed.

The giant Shtokman gas project will never be profitable, even with the tax reductions the ever more desperate Putin now is promising as a form of artificial respiration:

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has reassured the chief executives of France’s Total SA (TOT) and Norway’s Statoil ASA (STO) that favorable tax conditions will be created for the giant Shtokman gas project in the Barents Sea.

“We have taken several tax decisions at the federal and regional levels (…) that will create favorable conditions for implementing the Shtokman project,” Putin said at a meeting in Moscow with Total’s Christophe de Margerie and Statoil‘s Helge Lund, according to a transcript on the government website.

The meeting took place after the Shtokman shareholders–Total, Statoil and Russian state gas firm OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS)–had decided to postpone a final investment decision for the fourth time until July 1.

Read the entire article here

The "flawless democrat" with his German  servant

With the failure of Shtokman, Putin´s and his German henchman, former chancellor Gerhard Schröder´s Nord Stream will also turn out to be a huge - and expensive - mistake. (But it has of course been a personal gold mine for comrade Schröder, who still calls Putin a "flawless democrat").

The shale gas revolution is good for the US - and Europe

Fareed Zakaria´s column on the importance of the shale gas revolution is worth reading:

The United States now has, at current consumption rates, at least 75 years’ worth of recoverable natural gas. More important, the United States has become the world’s low-cost producer of natural gas. That fact is already changing the future of U.S. manufacturing. Companies such as Dow Chemical and Westlake Chemical are finding that low U.S. energy costs can mitigate the lower cost of labor in Asia – making it economical to keep and even build manufacturing facilities in the United States.

That might also help explain why high oil prices are not slowing down the U.S. economy as much as has been feared. Robert Hefner, a natural gas entrepreneur and author of “The Grand Energy Transition,” points out that the cost of heating 65 million American homes by natural gas has fallen $20 billion annually.

The environmental concerns are well taken. But the best studies out now – such as one by a committee that included the head of the Environmental Defense Fund – suggest that fracking can be done in a safe and responsible manner. Many of the riskiest practices are employed by a small number of the lowest-cost producers, a situation that calls for sensible regulation. Larger companies would probably welcome a set of rules, because they would want to follow best practices to protect their reputation and brand.

The age of natural gas will have geopolitical consequences. Until now, oil has been traded on a global market, but natural gas has been local. Because it is difficult to transport gas, countries with abundant resources and good pipelines get to set the price. Russia is able to demand up to $17 per thousand cubic feet from neighbors such as Ukraine and nations in Europe. The United States can produce natural gas for $2.50 per thousand cubic feet, and it has the world’s best and cheapest liquefying technology. Liquefied natural gas will create a single global market, and when long-term Russian contracts with Europe expire, Moscow will face a dramatic shortfall in revenue.

We will move from a world in which a few countries – Russia, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia – control the price and supply of natural gas to one in which this resource is far more dispersed. (For now, Iran does not have access to the technology needed to capitalize on its resources.)

Oil is famously found in difficult, dysfunctional places – and oil may be the cause of those problems. The new finds of shale gas are not in traditional resource states. The largest deposits appear to be in China, with sizable ones also in Argentina, Mexico, Poland, Canada and Australia. The geopolitical ramifications of these deposits are many, but some things are clear: It will be a blessing for Poland to have its own secure energy source and not have to depend on the vagaries of the Kremlin.

The rise of shale gas is shaping up to be the biggest shift in energy in generations. And its consequences – economic and political – are profoundly beneficial to the United States.

From a European point of view, the most important development of the shale gas revolution will be the diminishing role of Putin´s Russia in the energy markets. This will finally lead to the end of Putin´s corrupted and criminal government. 

Europe in search of an identity

Our own European Parliament is finally realizing that Europeans need an identity:


The European Parliament is trying to cultivate a "European identity," with top officials saying that it is the only way to ensure a lasting union between member states.
"National systems have very much invested in constructing their own identity," Klaus Welle, the secretary general of the European Parliament told an audience at the Centre for European Policy Studies

--
 "In order to stabilise identity, we have created national museums, we have created national curricula, we have reconstructed national history."


The parliament is now seeking to carry out a similar exercise.


The recently-opened Parliamentarium - a visitor-cum-exhibition centre - is "one attempt to contribute" to a European identity. There are others in the pipeline. A "House of History" - the brainchild of former parliament president Hans Gert Poettering - is due to open in 2014. The parliament is also "rediscovering" the fact that it owns the house lived in by Jean Monnet, one of the founding fathers of the European Union.

Renaming some of the European institutions could be another - very inexpensive - way to manifest the European identity. What about e.g. calling the European Parliament "The School of Scoundrels", or maybe "The European House of Clowns"?

And why not rename the European Central Bank to more closely correspond to what it really has been doing recently?: "The Incredible Virtual Money Machine".

"The European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism (EFSM)" could use a more catchy name, e.g. "The Unlimited European Bank Rescue Operation"

The continuing saga of European crisis Summits could be renamed as "Van Rompuy´s Rocky Horror Show".

The possibilities are endless ....

Barroso working on a plan to bring UK closer to the European Union

This is how European stamps could soon look , if  the new Barroso  plan is  implemented

The leaders of two of the most powerful European Union member countries, Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy have lately been worried about David Cameron´s way of distancing the UK from the core of the EU.

Sources in Brussels say that José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, is now working on a plan to bring the Britain closer to the European Union. The reintegration of Britain into the EU would be done by rebranding and transforming the EU into a new kind of Commonwealth, possibly with the Queen as the formal Head of State.

David Cameron, who has gone on  record saying that "Constitutional Monarchies are the most successful form of Democracy", is reported to be supportive of the new approach, which also is in line with Barroso´s previous thinking about the nature of the European Union:

PS


Herman van Rompuy, the current President of the European Union, is reported to be less than thrilled over the new plan.  He sees it as a plot by his rival Barroso to undermine his authority as the de facto head of state of the Union. However, observers in Brussels think that van Rompuy might be prepared to change his mind if he himself would be chosen as the first royal or imperial head of the new Commonwealth of Europe.