Biden’s looming energy crunch

Biden’s looming energy crunch

• If Putin invades Ukraine, who will fill the supply gap caused by sanctions?

"Oil and gas prices have soared since Joe Biden took office and skyrocketed further as Russian troops surround Ukraine. 

Prices will get worse — much worse — if Putin invades. 

President Biden has promised “swift, sharp sanctions” on Russia and an end to the Nord Stream II pipeline, which will supply Germany with much-needed Russian natural gas when it’s completed. 

...If the US and its NATO partners apply those sanctions, they would leave a huge shortfall in European energy supplies and a smaller one in the US, which now relies on some Russian imports itself. 

Russia currently supplies about 10 percent of the world’s energy and dominates Europe’s natural gas supplies, which are essential for home heating and power generation.

• The economic questions are obvious: who will fill the supply gap? 
• How long will it take? 
• What will happen to prices in the short- and medium-term? 
• Will surging prices cause a major slowdown in Western economies?...Read all.