Europe’s Greens Hit Stormy Weather

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Thanks to rebellions among the people and second thoughts among the politicians, European nations are beginning to see the folly of “green” policies they have enacted. As skyrocketing energy costs throttle consumers and businesses, and even lead to deaths, Europeans are turning back to domestic, carbon-based energy sources like coal and natural gas. The new trend is also pushed along by fears of a newly aggressive Russia, whose current dominance in natural gas production threatens other nations’ security.

It’s been called the European counterpart to the Tea Party movement—a grassroots uprising across countries that are members of the European Union (EU), a rebellion against rule by elitist bureaucrats. And a major component driving Europeans to this revolt is those bureaucrats’ “green” policies that hinder businesses of all sorts, raise electricity prices, and push people into so-called “energy poverty.”

In Britain, where cold weather caused 31,000 deaths last winter, a political party that defiantly promotes a scientific approach to the Global Warming issue—and so is smeared by environmental extremists—has become the fastest-growing party in modern British history. Indeed, that party, the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), recently placed first, with 28%, in the United Kingdom’s elections for seats in the European Parliament, while Britain’s current ruling parties came in 3rd place and 4th place.

The Tea Party is a grassroots, populist, free market-oriented movement, firmly in the mainstream of U.S. politics. Anti-EU groups vary ideologically, so the likening of the anti-EU revolt to the Tea Party is more accurate in some nations than others. While the UKIP, for instance, is in the political mainstream, anti-EU sentiment in some countries (Greece, for example) is centered in authoritarian parties.

Overall, anti-EU/anti-establishment parties won about one-third of the seats in the European Parliament, which represents citizens of the 28 countries of the EU, headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. Political commentator John McLaughlin summed up the election: “The losers: Europe’s elite, Brussels bureaucrats, and professional politicians.”

Meanwhile: Throwing a spotlight on the effect of unnecessary and counterproductive regulations in the energy sector is the aggression of Russia, which, under the leadership of former KGB officer Vladimir Putin, has invaded and dismembered the neighboring countries of Georgia and Ukraine and now threatens to dominate Europe.

Largely due to Europe’s failure to develop its own energy resources, the continent relies on Russia for a third of its oil and 40% of its natural gas. That dependence on Russian energy renders Europe incapable of responding appropriately to Putin’s criminality and aggression. [Click here for the entire article.]