Posts by electricsurfer47

Joshua Myers432 said:I filled up my tank yesterday. Now I'm sitting at 100%. Just great. 🎉 Hopefully, this will hold up for at least three months.

I think you might be mixing things up a bit. The whole conversation around natural gas has always been about just making it through this winter—long-term, everyone's already looking at switching to other sources. Is that really so hard to wrap your head around?


If the sanctions weren't actually working, Russia wouldn't be constantly whining about how they don't matter. If they were fine, they'd just keep selling their gas and everything else they can and stay quiet. But that's not happening.

They're still out there throwing around threats of a Nuclear Bomb

basically, they're using intimidation and scary tactics hoping to spook Europe into lifting those sanctions.

China has frozen $100 billion in Russian reserves
After dumping 17% of their gold and foreign exchange reserves into yuan, the Russian Federation has realized it’s basically impossible to get that money back out of Chinese assets.
To sell off those yuan—which represented over $100 billion in reserves back on January 1st—they’d need a special deal with China. You need permission from the Chinese authorities to do that, and according to the central bank, "it will be very hard to get that during a crisis."

So, the Russians traded $100 billion worth of gold for yuan. Now, in the middle of this crisis, they desperately need cash for the war, and they want to sell those yuan back to China, but it’s not that simple. They can use the yuan they bought to buy stuff from China, but obviously not military gear, because China is actually respecting sanctions—something the Russians didn't account for being a real possibility. Their plan was likely to get the money back, then use that returned gold or some other convertible currency to buy weapons elsewhere. But dumping $100 billion in yuan back into China's financial system all at once would cause massive disruptions, and no country is going to allow that. They can just keep using it to buy food, clothes, or whatever else from China... honestly, this looks like a strategic blunder probably made by Putin acting on his own whim rather than any actual council of economic experts in Russia.

Douglas Roberts49 said:The Ukrainians are going to cost us everything...

Look, Ukrainians are going through way more than we ever will. They’re literally paying with their lives just to defend their own soil and protect all of Europe from a future Russian invasion.

It isn't the Ukrainians who are costing us anything—it's the Russians. And honestly, it's also that old-school policy where we blindly trusted them when it came to energy supplies.

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James Phillips92 said:I'm not sure how much of an advantage that actually is if you're just burning through cubic feet of gas for zero dollars.

Just think about it.

It's his last resort.
He doesn't care if he loses a ton of money doing it; it's just a desperate move to hang onto power.

The whole goal is to pressure Europe into stopping their support for Ukraine. He's convinced he can pull it off just by cutting off the gas supply.

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Sean Reed3 said:Well, they finally shut off the gas. Word is the European Union is going to be sweating bullets over this one. Honestly, they really need to make up their minds—do we want to break a sweat or just freeze? 😁
I almost hope they never turn it back on toward the European Union. They can deal with the consequences over there...

Zelensky is offering up electricity from the Ukrainian nuclear plants to the European Union to help cut down on how much gas those power plants have to burn.
I'm looking at the list of reactors Ukraine actually has right now, and looks like there are only about 6 left in the areas they still control https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucl...wer_in_Ukraine

Not really sure how much of a difference that's actually going to make for the European Union.

Sandra Harris2 said:It’s funny how much the Russians seem to care about maintaining Nord Stream, when they could be using that energy to upgrade their military hardware instead.

Gas prices dropped today, sitting at around $1.20 per therm.

There’s even talk about putting a ceiling on gas prices—an idea the Italians pushed back in June that apparently now has broader consensus within the EU.

During his appearance at the World Economic Forum in Italy, Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukraine is capable of increasing its electricity exports to Europe (according to recent reports from the Italians).

Can anyone drop a link for this?

Terry Green3 said:The Poles are planning to offset rising energy costs by demanding WWII reparations from Germany. Their argument? That back in '53, '70, and '90, they only dropped the claims because the USSR was breathing down their necks.

Look, the USSR was an absolute monster, so I get why they feel entitled to that money.

Otherwise, we don't have much choice. Washington, D.C. needs to pivot to coal immediately, and honestly, the whole country should just follow suit. We might as well take a page out of the playbook used by our neighbors in Mexico, Canada, or even Mexico. They aren't shy about using coal for power and heating.
We don't really have any other option.

Yeah, and long-term, we really need to build out nuclear power, similar to how the UK and France did it.
This should be the motivation we need to finally get it done.
There's been way too much stalling.

Nancy Gomez26 said:'Standard firewood' won't work in his pellet stove. With pellets, you get a streamlined, automated heating system—none of the mess, none of the chopping, none of those ridiculous chores. People bought pellet stoves because they are an elegant solution. The catch is they are now beholden to pellet manufacturers. Pellets are a processed product with added value; they require a plant and energy input alongside the raw material. Whenever processing is involved, the price will inevitably track other energy sources.
I heat my home with wood from my own property, so I’ve also noticed "inflation" since last year—every tree in the woods is exactly one year older than it was last year... But all that wood still requires processing, splitting, and stacking. At the end of the day, even that isn't exactly 'free.'

Yeah, but what if you just pay a neighbor to do the work? Or maybe some local kids looking to make a few bucks over the summer? You just tell them it's under the table since it's just a quick job. Plus, you have to let everything dry out first before you even think about cutting and stacking it properly.

I still think wood is cheaper than other energy sources if you actually look at the numbers.

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wearytiger16 said:A 10kg bag of briquettes was $22 last year, $7.75, now it's $35 🤦

Maybe throw a few more sanctions at Russia 🤦

Think about it a bit more clearly. It didn't get expensive because there's some kind of shortage; it's because market demand is just climbing.
But that shouldn't stop you from just buying regular firewood. You can still head out to the countryside to clear out brush and grab some thick logs. For example, the rural areas around a Small town in the US Midwest are pretty neglected.
When I say neglected, I mean there's tons of land that nobody wants to work anymore, so the grass turns into weeds, and eventually, those weeds turn into thickets and trees.

If these sanctions stick around, it just proves that the demand for briquettes and wood is going to keep rising—which actually means it's a great business if someone's looking to get into it.

Donna Harris11 said:The United Kingdom is basically falling apart at the seams:

https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk...ions-a-269836/

I mean, because of all those sanctions, they can't even get their hands on bitumen anymore. It’s just... things are going south.

Most of the time they've just been building roads out of concrete anyway, so it's not like it's some massive disaster. Concrete roads actually last longer, though they don't handle the freeze-thaw cycles quite as well—but hey, they're already used to dealing with that.

dustytiger8 said:Naval is in prison... For now.

https://www.nytimes.com/news/world/politics/example-article-link

I just got mixed up there. Thanks.

Wait, how did they even bring up Navalny??? He was killed back in 2015

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Nathan Thomas12 said:You forgot to mention that those new US factories are slated to start production in 2024.
But hey, the Kremlin cheerleader keeps insisting that Russia and China will have all the chips while the West is left empty-handed. Honestly, who cares what Russian bots are typing when it’s already obvious they're lying?

He doesn't even realize who is actually driving the development of this new chip tech.

I mean, it’s not enough to just build the factories; you actually need to own the technology itself, which is where the US really dominates.

So, they're shrinking the chips down, right? That means you can cram way more transistors onto a single die, plus they use much less power. My whole point here is that if you don't have the actual underlying tech, you just can't compete.

dustyowl29 said:Sanctions don't just magically fix things in six months when you're dealing with a country that's supposedly this "wealthy." Besides, it’s really just the West slapping these restrictions on them—other nations are more than happy to look the other way and keep doing business with criminals.
We’re already seeing gas being flared because nobody's buying it, which is basically the same thing as burning through unsold wheat crops.
It's just a directionless, lost economic policy at this point.
The worst part? In a few years, once things settle down in Russia and some new leadership takes over, the West won't have any trust left to actually do business there again. They've essentially lumped themselves in with Iran and North Korea.
It's a pathetic situation for everyone involved—especially for Russia, considering how insanely resource-rich they are.

if that's the case, why is Russia hiding all their internal reports about what's actually happening inside the country??

Andrew Booth29 said:Things are going to get interesting this winter—natural gas prices in Europe have already climbed past $5.00 per unit... but hey, I guess we can always just huddle up under the blankets.

And what about firewood? Just buy a wood-burning stove. Makes life a lot more peaceful.

So, I’m reading that Norway is basically stepping in to take over the market share from Russia. Check out this link https://www.facebook.com/1378095215/...4Bw43BCVRuRxl/

hollowdriver13 said:“The EU basically shot itself in the foot with those sanctions” 🙂

Let's be real for a second—suppose we didn't even bother with sanctions. Let's just say the EU and the US kept providing military and financial aid to Ukraine while treating the gas and oil business as strictly "business as usual." Honestly, don't you think Putin would still have choked off the gas supply? He’d just use it as a political weapon to try and blackmail everyone into stopping the support for Ukraine.
It's not like this would be his first rodeo, either. He started setting the stage back in 2021 right after the decision to go to war was made, and we saw those gas deliveries start to tank during the second half of that year.
I’d bet money that's when we'd actually see people in the West getting riled up, yelling at politicians, “Hey, you didn't even sanction the aggressor, and we're still stuck with high gas and oil prices anyway!”

https://www.thechicagocouncil.org/re...kraine-fatigue

Support for Ukraine isn't actually flagging. Over 80% of Americans are willing to stomach higher energy costs if it means keeping up the support, and they believe we need to stick it out until the end.
We're seeing pretty much the same numbers across other Western nations, too. Public support for Ukraine isn't going anywhere.

Honestly, the only thing that bugs me is that the EU isn't doing enough.

Like, what about tax credits for wood stoves?

Or incentives for growing more timber—basically planting more trees for fuel.
I don't know about coal, though... what if they offered subsidies for that???

And what about hydrogen? Could hydrogen be the fuel of the future??? What if there were incentives for that too???
I know things don't change overnight.

But I can't help but wonder about diversifying pipelines and oil routes through alternative paths. What is actually being done there??? Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have expressed interest in selling their energy to the European Union, but I never hear anything new about it.

What's the hold-up??? Is it just finding investors to build a new pipeline or oil terminal???

I want to see more in the media about what Europe is actually capable of doing and what steps are being taken to find alternatives.
I’m so tired of reading politicians say stuff like—"we're going to freeze," or "Germany can't handle this or that."
And what about nuclear power?? Couldn't this whole situation with Russia push our country or one of our neighbors to build a massive nuclear plant?? Maybe a joint project with Canada??? Like, build some top-tier facility right on the border that can withstand any conditions, maybe even a tsunami (even though there won't be one).

EDIT

What I'm saying doesn't mean we should abandon gas entirely. It just means we should find other solutions for households, and for places where gas is hard to replace, we should supply it from our own domestic sources. We could even supply things like heavy industry from local sources instead of relying on imports. I know, sounds optimistic coming from me, but if we can take the pressure off gas consumption by using something else—like for homes—then it's doable.

Donna Harris11 said:The front lines are totally stagnant now. It feels like the war is basically over at this point; everyone is just sitting around waiting for the right conditions to finally sign Minsk 3.

And then, give it a few years, and the Russians will be moving again. Eventually, Ukraine will reclaim everything they lost and push those occupiers back so they stop stealing more territory at Ukraine's expense.

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analogbear5 said:Spoiled Americans crying because walking around the house in their underwear during winter might become a luxury. Newsflash: it’s always been a luxury.

Look, don't act like this is the end of civilization.

My family was dealing with terrible heating oil over a decade ago, and then suddenly prices spiked, so we were basically rationing it drop by drop just to keep the tank from hitting empty. Eventually, we bought a wood stove, and now we save a ton on heating.
I'll admit, our current chimney isn't really built for wood because it's too narrow—it would be nice to install a wider one that's easier to clean—but the bottom line is
wood is cheap energy.
If you don't feel like stacking the logs yourself, just pay someone, I don't know, maybe a local high school kid looking to make some extra cash.
Buy your wood from a local lumberjack who delivers by the cord, pay for the sawing service, and at the end of the day, it still works out cheaper than natural gas.

I read somewhere that people in Germany are starting to switch back to wood. Not everyone, but there's a shift happening. The smart ones already planned ahead, while the ones who didn't... well, they're just turning their thermostats down a few degrees.

Justin Mendoza16 said:☕Yeah, sure, because a kid is definitely walking around carrying screwdrivers and pliers 🤣so Mom doesn't have to crawl under the car while she works. 🤣This is some straight-up sitcom nonsense...

but hey, details don't matter, I guess.

They'll just air this on TV a hundred times until they convince the Russians it actually happened, spreading enough hate to drum up more soldiers. That's it. Putin has no limits; he'll fight down to the very last Russian, just like Hitler.