\u201cThis is a great opportunity to remind us why the transformation of the energy system matters,\u201d Teresa Ribera, the Commission\u2019s Executive Vice President told POLITICO after Trump\u2019s attack on green energy in Davos. Renewable sources of energy \u201cmean freedom, lower dependence and vulnerabilities.\u201d <\/p>\n
Can\u2019t\u00a0stop guzzling\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n While pivoting to clean power is an obvious priority, \u201cyou cannot dream away the existing dependence on oil and gas imports,\u201d said Thijs Van de Graaf, a specialist in the geopolitics of energy at the Ghent Institute for International and European Studies.<\/p>\n The Commission has limited power to dictate where companies obtain their LNG supplies, and the dizzying pace of growth in purchases of the U.S. product will be difficult to reverse.<\/p>\n \u201cUnilateral action from the EU to limit its purchases is … unlikely,\u201d argued Jack Reid, a lead economist at economic advisory firm Oxford Economics in a note published last week. He pointed out that for all the EU’s efforts to diversify, Russia remains the bloc\u2019s second largest supplier of LNG.<\/p>\n On top of that, the importers themselves are hesitant to curb such a roaring trade. <\/strong>POLITICO asked several German companies and received a range of responses. Some foresaw no change in the U.S. trade, while others, including Uniper, said flexibility may be needed. <\/p>\n