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Robert Brooks's avatar

The deindustrialization of Europe has been concerning and yet fascinating to watch from the US. As an oil and gas engineer I often see the world through the lens of energy production and consumption. I had a LLM conversation about your article and my concern about the unaddressed energy policy issues. The conversation was condensed down to this :

**Comment for Yascha Mounk (100 words)**

Your nuanced institutional analyses might benefit from examining Europe's self-inflicted energy crisis as a case study in governance failure. Post-2008, Europe made three fateful decisions: prematurely closing reliable nuclear plants, banning domestic shale development, and deepening dependence on Russian gas—while heavily subsidizing intermittent renewables. Meanwhile, America embraced shale innovation. The consequences? Beyond electricity costs, Europe's industrial gas prices soared 345% above America's, devastating competitiveness. This policy-driven vulnerability culminated with Putin weaponizing energy supplies in 2022. Few factors better illustrate how technocratic hubris in resource policy can undermine democratic capitalism's foundational economic security and geopolitical independence.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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HP's avatar

Could not agree more. The supposedly “green” energy policies were a total disaster. The problem is that our political class is very invested in them. Luckily Trump is giving us a huge opportunity to upend them without losing face and it is actually starting to happen.

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