The Baltics were the first nations to break away from the Soviet Union. 35 years later, they’re finally declaring their energy independence from Russia.
This Sunday, February 9th, all three will officially synchronize with the European Union’s electric grid after being tethered to the joint BRELL grid with Belarus and Russia. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania weaned themselves off of Russian oil and gas. The three Baltic Republics, good NATO dues-paying members, cite energy security as a top reason for decoupling.
“This means that grid synchronisation is a crucial step in the energy security picture, as it ensures the technical feasibility of connections and it offers a way out from energy dependency from unreliable partners as we’ve seen in the case of the Baltics, Ukraine and Moldova,” Eurelectric, Europe’s electric industry federation, explained.
The Baltics fully untethering themselves from Russia’s energy infrastructure is a good first step to achieving energy independence. It puts other EU countries depending on Russian natural gas on notice. But the European Commission says integrating the Baltic States into the Continental European Network (CEN) will “facilitate the uptake of renewable energy, supporting them [to] achieve the European Green Deal objectives.”
Much to the EU’s chagrin, energy independence and net-zero are incompatible.The EU Green Deal calls for carbon neutrality by 2050–a goal that mirrored the Biden-Harris administration’s radical climate policies. At best, net-zero policies only reduce global temperatures by 0.2 degrees Celsius–not 1.5C–but will lead to total economic destruction.
In 2023, POLITICO Europe bizarrely argued Russian dictator Vladimir Putin — a top recipient of their Green 28 Class of 2023 — is “the invader making the EU green.”
“It took a war criminal to speed up Europe’s green revolution,” the publication boasted. “By invading Ukraine and manipulating energy supplies to undermine European support for Kyiv, Russian President Vladimir Putin has achieved something generations of green campaigners could not — clean energy is now a fundamental matter of European security.”
The outlet appeared to welcome Russia’s invasion to nudge a “green transition," saying: “Putin also invaded Ukraine after the EU had spent two years laying the foundations of its Green Deal program for zeroing out emissions by 2050. That meant the policy machinery for a total remake of the European energy economy was already moving. All it needed was a nudge.”
Let’s clear the air: there’s no green transition happening. “World oil demand growth is set to accelerate…,” a December 2024 IEA report concluded.
Europe, like the U.S., is finally waking up on net-zero. A 2023 Reuters report warned “the green transition” could “cause a major increase in inequalities” — especially for lower-income households. As of July 2024, only four of 27 EU members are on track to meet their climate commitments. Foreign Policy warned last fall the European Green Deal isn’t working and will “face postponements and even rollbacks.” It cited a policy brief from Bruegel, a Belgian think tank, that argued “climate policies will affect people’s everyday lives in disruptive ways...”
European efforts to achieve energy independence will be undermined with continued reliance on intermittent solar and wind energy. As part-time sources, working for 25% and 35% of the year, respectively, these so-called clean energy sources aren’t secure and imperil grid stability. That breeds energy insecurity and will make European nations more dependent on Russian energy.
Lithuania, one of the aforementioned Baltics, recently announced it’s suspending its second offshore wind farm auction after attracting one mere bid. Last fall, former Lithuanian Vice Minister of Energy Zananavičius told Townhall wind is a part of Lithuania’s electricity mix. Yet, he conveyed more optimism for nuclear energy–an actual clean energy source functioning 93% of the year.
The United Kingdom is a case study for not replicating net-zero policies. Germany, for all of its talk of “going green,” still consumes a substantial amount of oil and boasts the highest demand in all of Europe. Nations like Germany and Spain are shuttering nuclear plants.
Here’s an inconvenient truth for our European friends: Reluctance to decouple from net-zero is inviting continued reliance on Russia. The EU, therefore, would be wise to reconsider so-called clean energy projects as the United States has.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, formerly of the private sector, wrote in his first secretarial order: “Net-zero policies raise energy costs for American families and businesses, threaten the reliability of our energy system, and undermine our energy and national security. They have also achieved precious little in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. The fact is that energy matters, and we need more of it, not less.”
Energy policymaking should prioritize abundance, reliance, and security–not force a nonexistent “green transition” that leaves people and nature worse off.
Europe shouldn’t simply import our energy; it should import our energy policies too. Follow Secretary Wright’s lead and you, too, can unleash your very own Golden Age of energy.
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