The Global Energy Security War

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Nuclear Power - Economics, Design, & Industry

Date posted: 03/31/15

Karel Beckman, reporting from Istanbul, reports that concerns about energy security have shot to the top of the political agenda in Europe. But the U.S. has no intention of letting the EU down. The U.S. will be working with the EU to develop a plan for the mid- to long-term evolution of a more energy-secure future, said US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz at a conference of the Atlantic Council in Istanbul. At this summit, top US officials and energy experts showed themselves surprisingly positive about the progress the EU has made reducing its dependence on Russia. A few years ago, we could not have solved the Ukrainian problem. Now we can. With U.S. LNG exports under way, the monumental Southern Corridor under construction, and Gazprom South Stream project increasingly under pressure, Europe position will only get stronger. In his opening address at the Atlantic Council Energy and Economic Summit 2014 in Istanbul, President and CEO Frederick Kempe immediately made it clear the Atlantic Council is playing for high stakes. Europe is in the middle of an inflection point of its history, he said. 2014 is every bit as dramatic as 1815 the year of Versailles. Or, he added, 1989, the year of the fall of Communism. The future of the international liberal order, said Kempe, is at stake. Actually, listening to many of the presentations at the Istanbul summit, the mood among the Americans recalled not so much of a specific year, as a period in history - the Cold War. Clearly for the Atlanticists and it is probably fair to say that the bipartisan Atlantic Council represents the conventional geopolitical look of the Washington, DC establishment with the resurgence of Russia the Cold War is back all the way. And at the heart of this New Cold War, even more than in the Old Cold War, is security of energy - aka oil and gas supply.