NYTimes: Russia May Be Losing Influence Over European Energy Markets

The Ukraine crisis is unlikely to produce many benefits. But it could serve as a kind of stress test to see whether Europe’s approach to energy policy is working.

The European authorities have been far more interventionist than their American counterparts on energy, with the objectives of reducing carbon emissions and promoting energy security.

Now along comes an international imbroglio in which energy is playing an outsized role. How much impact is it having on Europe?

Of course, the confrontation over Ukraine has heightened fears that natural gas from Russia could be cut off. For those reasons, Europe has been reluctant to impose punitive sanctions on Russia. And when it did start clamping down on Russia’s energy industry late last month, the sanctions were carefully drafted to block the export of technology or equipment that might aid new oil projects in Russia, while not interfering with Russian gas, which Europe supposedly cannot live without.
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