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‘We are talking about energy security for Europe’: Norway doubles down on oil and gas production
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 16 May 2026
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That's bullshit. The rapid transition is a way towards energy security. This is just another way of slowing down said transition because every drop of oil we don't burn isn't making a few people richer at our expense.
Not necessarily. There is a risk for that but given how the push forces for the transition are primarily not market price driven that is not necessarily happening. I assume you are not making the crazy claim that one could stop using gas over night without massive negative economic if not systemic repercussions. Are you? If you are not, you need to secure supplies for the transition time, otherwise you have that very stop overnight.
But it never stops there. It's never just "securing supplies" during the transition time. The next step is always: But it's cheaper if we do long-term contracts. Followed by, saving money that was meant for the transition because it's obviously not a pressing issue with long-term supplies "secured" (in parantheses because it's never actually secure, just planned long-term).
Oh, there is a long-term demand? Guess then doubling down on drilling even more will work, too.
And this is literally going on for decades already.
You are ignoring the part that was about the motivations that push for the transition, which isn't about price. Those motivations are not going away, they are only getting more urgent. The rapid transition is a thing of recent years and has not been dragging on for decades.
You are also evading the question before. The only alternative to securing transition supplies is a harsh and sudden lack of supplies with lack in alternative capacities with severe impact on economy and might even necessitate emergency shutdowns. If you oppose the one thing you are necessarily in favour of the latter or evading reality.
No one is talking about a sudden stop, but a normal transition out of fossil fuels... oh, wait. That was fucking 30-35 years ago. But instead we chose to believe the lie that it's just not possible right now but some technological advances will just magically apear soon™.
But at some point 15 years ago the pressure (hello inceasing extreme weather periods and natural disasters...) to do something grew and so we needed to run the next fairy tale how we actually don't need to anything if we just plan to put extra fees on fossil fuels that pay for the transition. Not now of course, that could cost us money so maybe in 10 to 15 years.
But then 5 years ago those fees were starting to not look like some imaginary far away future and so we needed -again- yet another narrative why it's not possible to start and suddenly we got flodded by stories of how those plans are actually bad because they don't work and increasing fossil fuel costs would just damage our industry, and it's all useless anyway as nobody else is caring for climate change anyway so our own decisions are meaningless. Why hurt ourselves when "the whole world" (not some real one, but propaganda doesn't care about reality) happily burns the planet down.
Guess what... wars and otherconflicts managed to increase those fossil fuel prices anyway. So we now are finally forced to start that transition. Right? No, we instead cry about those costs and how it hurts economies and really, really need to be brought down by subsidies and long-term contracts. Yes, of course we will start the transition, just not now because... Maybe we should look into nuclear again that is economically failing for decades or wait for fusion that will be ready very soon. Trust me bro...
And in 50 years idiots will still tell the story of a proper transition... sometimes in the future -any day now©-, just not right now as we obviously can't and need to prioritize our energy security first.
Oh well. What an easy and completely pointless polemic to talk about what should have been done 35 years ago, when there was no feasible alternative available for electric mobility and photovoltaic and wind power were still miles away from the technological maturity they are now. As a matter of fact the oil crises did have a lot of beneficial consequences. The Netherlands for example reversed course almost 180° and instead of turning their country into a fully US style car only hell hole, they initiated the transformation that put them in a position where they have their mobility needs in many baskets. Also Austria was getting serious about hydropower back then etc. But of course much more could and should have been done also in the 90s for example.
I am talking about recent times and the future. You are calling me an idiot simply for pointing out that we need to cover fossil fuel demands during the transition as we'd otherwise face an economic crash and harsh consequences for common people too (energy limitations, maybe outages etc). Yet you are not even denying that those resources are needed also in a transition that is happening as rapidly as possible.
I am not sure in which alternative reality you are living in which there is no meaningful transition happening in Europe. Photovoltaic and wind power, especially also the much more reliable off-shore wind power output has been expanded rapidly in recent years, substantially changing the energy mix in the EU. EV adoption is more of a mixed bag while there has been counterproductive lobbying by some future Nokia companies we are moving ahead, unlike the US for example. Even if slightly trailing China.
I would not stop Norway's oil export as long as European countries still rely on Russian oil at least.