Economics
Europe’s Freezing Winter May Exacerbate Global Warming
- Generating power from natural gas remains unprofitable
- Market shift undercuts effort to cut pollution from industry
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Europe wants its industry to burn more natural gas instead of coal to reduce global warming. The problem is, there isn’t enough gas at the right price.
Depleted gas stores after the coldest winter since 2012, coupled with pipeline constraints on flows from Russia and Norway, have driven prices to their highest level in at least five years. The result: generating electricity from gas is unprofitable for many utilities, according to Bloomberg calculations based on the cost of fuel, power and emission permits.