# Do conservatives think there is something intrinsically good about gasoline/fossil fuel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 15, 2022, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-conservatives-think-there-is-something-intrinsically-good-about-gasoline-fossil-fuel/966254 "2022-06-15T19:23:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 235
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2022, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-conservatives-think-there-is-something-intrinsically-good-about-gasoline-fossil-fuel/966254/235 "2022-06-30T04:39:12Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Germany has been heavily building out wind and solar for 20 years, while shutting down conventional and nuclear energy generation. The result is that they now import 55% of their energy in the form of natural gas from Russia, and they are considering re-opening coal plants. A total disaster. Are you sure you’re not being a bit over-hysterical about this? “Total disaster”? That seems like a rather extreme characterization of what is [being described as a temporary standby measure that will not change Germany’s Energiewande goal of phasing out coal power generation by 2030.](https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/germany-plans-put-idled-coal-plants-standby-case-gas-supply-disruption-2022-05-24/) > [@](#): > > Germany is planning to use coal-fired power stations which would have been idled this year and next as reserve facilities in case of disruption to gas supplies from Russia, economy ministry sources said on Tuesday. > > The proposals, drawn up by the ministry as part of precautionary measures in case of a gas shortage, would run until March 31, 2024 as Germany tries to cut its dependence on Russian fossil fuels after the invasion of Ukraine, the sources said. […] > > In particular, gas, which accounted for 15% of power production input last year, must be prioritised for industry and heating homes if a bottleneck arises, making it necessary to draw on idled coal capacity to fill the gaps, they said. […] > > The sources said that maintaining coal capacity in a state of readiness would not mean that plants emit additional carbon emissions, stressing that the plan would not derail Germany’s overall goal to stop using coal for power generation by 2030. Also, I think you may have misread your source, or your source was inaccurate, when you said that Germany now imports “55% of their energy in the form of natural gas from Russia”. [AFAICT,](https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-dependence-imported-fossil-fuels) Germany currently imports 63.7% of its total energy (2021 figures). Of its total primary energy consumption, 31.8% is from oil (of which 34% is imported from Russia), about 25% AFAICT is from natural gas (of which 55% is imported from Russia—which may be the figure you or your source misunderstood), 9% is from lignite (brown coal), 9% is from hard coal, 15% from renewables, and the remaining approximately 10% from nuclear and others. So ISTM that what you think is Germany importing 55% of its total energy as natural gas from Russia is actually Germany importing 55% of its natural gas from Russia, for a total of about 14% of Germany’s total energy provided by imported natural gas from Russia. Germany also, as I noted, gets about 11% of its total energy (34% of 32%) in the form of imported crude oil from Russia. Adding up to a total of about 25% of all German energy use derived from Russian imports. Which is a significant amount and I’m sure that right now the Germans are wishing it were less, but it is nowhere near the 55%-of-total-energy figure that you were imagining. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-conservatives-think-there-is-something-intrinsically-good-about-gasoline-fossil-fuel/966254)._