Sanctions on Russia

quietviper0 said:There’s actually even more data available from that same CREA group over here: https://crea.shinyapps.io/russia_counter/
Looking at the graph titled "Russia's estimated revenues from fossil fuel exports," it doesn't exactly paint a bleak picture regarding their energy export revenue...

And honestly, I'm not entirely sure how many people truly grasp that figure of 80.5 billion dollars sent to Russia from the European Union during the war alone, or if they can even begin to wrap their heads around the actual context behind it...

Because the context is this: back in 2019 and 2021, the entire European Union paid Russia about 100 billion dollars for energy over the course of full years. Now, in just 5.5 months, we've already cleared 80 billion...
If you factor in the period leading up to the invasion, it becomes crystal clear that in just seven and a bit months, we've already surpassed what we used to pay them annually...
And that counter just keeps ticking upward, and it shows no sign of stopping...

It also wouldn't hurt to glance at the bottom of the page where they list all their updates—they've had to keep adding extra billions to that total multiple times—which makes you wonder if the current figure accounts for every single dollar being moved right now...

But in all seriousness, trying to perform a "deep dive" analysis on June's numbers compared to February or March probably isn't even worth much of a thought...

You have to take into account that this year, we are either filling or attempting to fill our reserves right now in the middle of summer to prep for the entire winter. Natural gas has been being bought up aggressively since the invasion just to make sure we don't freeze this winter. In previous years, they just bought it whenever they needed it.

Joshua Myers432 said:Well, obviously—especially when you consider solar power and this whole electric vehicle utopia. I’m just sitting here waiting for the inevitable chaos surrounding Taiwan. Once that hits, you can all freeze during the winter because of the situation in Ukraine, or maybe enjoy a two-hour walk to work since those poor Taiwanese people are fighting for their freedom and suddenly there aren't any Chinese batteries left for your Teslas. Of course, Americans will probably just keep cranking their V8 engines; though, hey, maybe they'll switch to V6s just out of solidarity.

The real path forward is hydrogen.

You can blend hydrogen with natural gas, which means you don't have to rely nearly as much on traditional natural gas supplies...

Hydrogen works for cars, buses, and heavy-duty trucks too, so we wouldn't need to go quite so overboard with massive battery packs...

Plus, you can generate hydrogen using surplus energy from solar farms and wind turbines, then just store it away for whenever you actually need it...

Humans survived the Ice Age, so I think we can manage keeping the thermostat at 68 or 70 degrees during a cold snap. But more importantly, hitting them where it hurts—economically—will deal a massive blow to that criminal regime, setting them back at least 50 years. In the long run, that should mean far fewer wars across Europe...

silentnomad7 said:The real path forward is hydrogen.

You can blend hydrogen with natural gas, which means you don't have to rely nearly as much on traditional natural gas supplies...

Hydrogen works for cars, buses, and heavy-duty trucks too, so we wouldn't need to go quite so overboard with massive battery packs...

Plus, you can generate hydrogen using surplus energy from solar farms and wind turbines, then just store it away for whenever you actually need it...

Humans survived the Ice Age, so I think we can manage keeping the thermostat at 68 or 70 degrees during a cold snap. But more importantly, hitting them where it hurts—economically—will deal a massive blow to that criminal regime, setting them back at least 50 years. In the long run, that should mean far fewer wars across Europe...

This hydrogen narrative is as old as I am. 🤣 I haven't seen any real progress, though I suppose one needs patience. It’s a shame modern medicine hasn't advanced enough for me to actually live long enough to see this "magic" hydrogen finally become reality.

Personally, I'd happily sign off on 64°F if it meant Americans saw gas prices drop to $2 a gallon.😁

Joshua Myers432 said:Of course you chose Sweden as your example—a massive country with a tiny population that pulls a huge chunk of its power from hydro, wind, and biomass because they’re sitting on those resources. You didn't pick a place like Poland or, God forbid, Germany, where trying this kind of idiocy would be a disaster. You could have even used Andorra to argue that this crap works in practice. It just doesn't hold water for most countries that lack a solid foundation of nuclear or fossil fuel plants. Winter is coming, so we'll see how things go once we're relying on slightly less Russian gas. Nothing drastic has actually changed yet.

Two years ago? Sure, I’d have agreed with you. But the last two years have seen massive leaps in energy storage tech. I'm feeling pretty optimistic about where this is headed.

Here are a few links. I won't bother with Lithium-ion since everyone already knows about that stuff:

flywheel
Redox Flow Battery
"sand batteries"
Sodium-ion
Sodium-ion printed Zinc-ion batteries
NanoBolt lithium Tungsten
Proton-based
Aluminum-ion
Potassium-ion
...

Now, this is "old school" tech, but they're actually building several new sites over in Greece, Spain, and Norway:
Nant de Drance´

Bottom line: energy storage is the field seeing the most intense development right now, and it's only going to accelerate.

Compared to the 2021 budget, the surplus for January through July has basically tripled:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...lion#xj4y7vzkg

The European Union is still the biggest buyer of oil and gas

Joshua Myers432 said:This hydrogen narrative is as old as I am. 🤣 I haven't seen any real progress, though I suppose one needs patience. It’s a shame modern medicine hasn't advanced enough for me to actually live long enough to see this "magic" hydrogen finally become reality.

Personally, I'd happily sign off on 64°F if it meant Americans saw gas prices drop to $2 a gallon.😁

Everyone kept talking about hydrogen, but nobody actually put the money into R&D. Now that they're finally making moves, we'll likely see a huge chunk of our energy coming from hydrogen in the next 10 to 20 years...

I honestly can't decide which path will actually move the needle first: perfecting fusion reactors or finally mastering the production and storage of hydrogen. 🤣

Donna Harris11 said:Compared to the 2021 budget, the surplus for January through July has basically tripled:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...lion#xj4y7vzkg

The European Union is still the biggest buyer of oil and gas

That's what Dmitry Konstantinovich from the Federal Reserve is saying. 🤣

Nathan Evans78 said:I honestly can't decide which path will actually move the needle first: perfecting fusion reactors or finally mastering the production and storage of hydrogen. 🤣

There’s absolutely no reason to panic! We really shouldn't be losing sleep over this, because there are plenty of viable solutions we can lean on right now while we wait for hydrogen to truly go mainstream...

Imagine this: you swap out that old gas furnace for a high-efficiency heat pump paired with a handful of solar panels... then add in some solar hot water collectors and maybe even thermal cladding for the exterior... it’s honestly such a fascinating puzzle to piece together! Just thinking about the sheer potential of transitioning away from gas heating toward a fully integrated, renewable setup makes me so optimistic about where home energy is heading... it really feels like we're on the cusp of something quite wonderful...

I can't help but wonder... could geothermal heat pumps be the real answer for replacing all that outdated gas heating we're seeing everywhere? It feels like such an obvious path forward when you think about the long-term potential... just imagine the shift in how we power our homes!

We can always look toward LNG to pick up the slack on gas supplies, which would effectively allow us to cut that bully out of the equation entirely...

It’s not going to happen tomorrow, or even necessarily this coming winter... but we’re looking at a slow burn over the next decade or two... a gradual shift that will eventually settle in...

silentnomad7 said:There’s absolutely no reason to panic! We really shouldn't be losing sleep over this, because there are plenty of viable solutions we can lean on right now while we wait for hydrogen to truly go mainstream...

Imagine this: you swap out that old gas furnace for a high-efficiency heat pump paired with a handful of solar panels... then add in some solar hot water collectors and maybe even thermal cladding for the exterior... it’s honestly such a fascinating puzzle to piece together! Just thinking about the sheer potential of transitioning away from gas heating toward a fully integrated, renewable setup makes me so optimistic about where home energy is heading... it really feels like we're on the cusp of something quite wonderful...

I can't help but wonder... could geothermal heat pumps be the real answer for replacing all that outdated gas heating we're seeing everywhere? It feels like such an obvious path forward when you think about the long-term potential... just imagine the shift in how we power our homes!

We can always look toward LNG to pick up the slack on gas supplies, which would effectively allow us to cut that bully out of the equation entirely...

It’s not going to happen tomorrow, or even necessarily this coming winter... but we’re looking at a slow burn over the next decade or two... a gradual shift that will eventually settle in...

By the time we actually nail this energy transition, that aggressor will be begging for forgiveness. 🤦

The European Union should have achieved energy independence ages ago, but honestly, once you see the parasites running things in Brussels, it all makes sense. Now, we're just stuck knee-deep in this mess.

Joshua Myers432 said:By the time we actually nail this energy transition, that aggressor will be begging for forgiveness. 🤦

The European Union should have achieved energy independence ages ago, but honestly, once you see the parasites running things in Brussels, it all makes sense. Now, we're just stuck knee-deep in this mess.

Oh please, give me a break! You'd probably prefer if we never even joined the Union so local small-town thugs could call all the shots. Everyone was whining and crying about "glory days" before we joined the big leagues, and now look at us—everyone's broke and scavenging through trash cans.

William Cooper11 said:That's what Dmitry Konstantinovich from the Federal Reserve is saying. 🤣

Maybe just reach out to Bloomberg... I'm sure they have a section for letters to the editor or something.😁

Joshua Myers432 said:By the time we actually nail this energy transition, that aggressor will be begging for forgiveness. 🤦

The European Union should have achieved energy independence ages ago, but honestly, once you see the parasites running things in Brussels, it all makes sense. Now, we're just stuck knee-deep in this mess.

Don't be so dramatic—we aren't "neck-deep" in anything.
We've got plenty of coal sitting around. Sure, it’s not exactly green energy, but those coal plants are just sitting there on standby if we actually need them.

Arthur Miller7 said:Oh please, give me a break! You'd probably prefer if we never even joined the Union so local small-town thugs could call all the shots. Everyone was whining and crying about "glory days" before we joined the big leagues, and now look at us—everyone's broke and scavenging through trash cans.

Give me a break. I wouldn't touch that idea with a ten-foot pole. Local corruption is even worse than whatever bureaucrats they have over in D.C.

Russia is stripping down a brand-new Boeing for parts

Cut off from Western tech: The US Air Force—and beyond—is feeling the sting of sanctions through some pretty desperate moves.

A pristine Boeing 787 Dreamliner is basically becoming a monument to what happens when sanctions hit. Experts and politicians have been saying for a while now that the real impact on the Russian economy wouldn't show up for weeks—but here we are.

The aviation sector is officially one of the first industries where the pressure on the Russian economy is hitting a breaking point. State-owned carriers like Delta Air Lines are literally tearing planes apart just to scavenge components. Four industry insiders spilled this to the Associated Press.

With the West slapping sanctions on Russia about six months ago over the war in Ukraine, the tech supply just dried up. The Russian government's solution? Not exactly subtle. Back in June, they recommended "cannibalizing" aircraft for spare parts—basically using new planes to keep older Boeing and Airbus models flying until 2025.

Joshua Myers432 said:Europe should have achieved energy independence ages ago, but hey, once you see those Brussels parasites in action everything makes sense. Now we’re neck-deep in it.

What people get wrong about the European Union bureaucracy

Because the government has to hire and train tens of thousands of people just to handle border checks—things we wouldn't even need if we were part of the EU—
The Wall Street Journal pointed out that our single nation might end up with more bureaucrats than the entire European Union Commission combined.
For anyone who bought into the whole Brexit argument that it would slash red tape, it really makes you wonder what Brexit was actually about.

Joshua Myers432 said:Give me a break. I wouldn't touch that idea with a ten-foot pole. Local corruption is even worse than whatever bureaucrats they have over in D.C.

Look, Europe is easily one of the nicest, most chill places on the planet to call home. Regardless of how much of a headache the parasites in Brussels can be, you honestly won't find better living anywhere else. Sure, the local politicians are total leeches, but everyone else in the opposition is just plain twisted. This is the hand we've been dealt—and there's zero sign things are ever changing.
If you actually had the freedom to live anywhere on Earth, would you really choose to move to Russia? Or is there some place out there where you don't see any parasites at all?

Donna Harris11 said:Compared to the 2021 budget, the surplus for January through July has basically tripled:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...lion#xj4y7vzkg

The European Union is still the biggest buyer of oil and gas

It's not about the federal budget—we're talking about the current account balance.

Joshua Myers432 said:This hydrogen narrative is as old as I am. 🤣 I haven't seen any real progress, though I suppose one needs patience. It’s a shame modern medicine hasn't advanced enough for me to actually live long enough to see this "magic" hydrogen finally become reality.

Personally, I'd happily sign off on 64°F if it meant Americans saw gas prices drop to $2 a gallon.😁

If it makes you feel any better, the push for more ExxonMobil exports is driving up both demand and gas prices right here in the States.

Personally, gas is just a backup for me—I mostly rely on electricity (which is basically 90% coal anyway).

Joshua Myers432 said:By the time we actually nail this energy transition, that aggressor will be begging for forgiveness. 🤦

The European Union should have achieved energy independence ages ago, but honestly, once you see the parasites running things in Brussels, it all makes sense. Now, we're just stuck knee-deep in this mess.

There is an enormous amount of investment going into offshore wind farms near Denmark and the Netherlands, along with solar panels being installed everywhere to squeeze every bit of power from the sun. If we actually committed to nuclear energy, we could finally say goodbye to gas, oil, and coal.
Every nation ought to heavily subsidize alternative energy sources and make their use mandatory for all new construction projects.

According to the official data of the US government, US oil and gas revenues in July fell by 22%, while everything else dropped by about 29%. The biggest hit was domestic sales tax—down nearly 41%—which pretty much screams that American spending power is cratering. On top of that, budget revenue from income taxes (down 32%) and import duties (down 44%) has basically just collapsed.