[parkingrift]

>But it seems strange to argue that Germany just should have bought gas from Qatar or the US for double the price from the start.

That was never on the table. The US doesn’t even have the export capacity to manage it.

Germany should have pursued energy independence for the the European Union. It’s as simple as that.

[oezi]

Whenever the Germany was critiqued on its Russian gas dependence by the US it was always brought up that Germany could rely more on US gas (from fracking if I recall).

> Germany should have pursued energy independence for the European Union. It’s as simple as that.

Nothing simple about that. Germany financed the first solar boom under the Green party before 2005 which cost German consumers a pretty penny (EEG Umlage). When Merkel got into power this renewables surcharge got so high that it was threatening consumers and industry. Merkel put on the brakes for renewables (which cost Germany pretty much all solar industry) and ushered in the Gas dependence.

Only with expensive fossils do renewables have a chance in Europe. So the current prices do have at least one advantage and might eventually lead to the energy independence.