The European Pulse — The Live Beat of European Sentiment What do Europeans really think about the future of their continent? The European Pulse captures the live beat of public sentiment across six EU countries. By POLITICO and beBartlet.

Enlightening but grim reading from the big "European Pulse" survey done by Politico. It's distrust and pessimism the whole way down.

bebartlet.com/european-pul...

A Wikipedia infobox titled "Jerk", sub-titled "Time-derivitatives of position, including jerk". Where "r" is position, the deriviative of r is velocity (speed), the derivative of that is acceleration, the derivative of that is jerk, the derivative of that is snap (jounce), the derivative of that is crackle, and the derivative of that is pop. Below are common symbols, SI base units, and dimension.

Me, drafting a position paper: I need to communicate that it's not about accelerating, it's about sustaining acceleration over time.

Wikipedia🧩: The word you want is "jerk (physics)"

Me: I'm sure "Jerk EU" is going to land well

Wikipedia🧩: "hyperjerk systems use snap, crackle, & pop" 🤪

#EUSky

Opinion: Carbon tax may be the tax we love to hate, but it's the one we can't afford to scrap Carbon tax may be unpopular, but we need it to avoid a far more expensive future, and the government was wrong to cave in after protests, writes John Gibbons.

www.thejournal.ie/readme/carbo...
Ireland's carbon tax is what pays for retrofits for poor households and for the Fuel Allowance. Farmers already benefit from exemptions to it. Scrapping it makes us more dependent on fossil fuels in the long-run

the strait of hormuz is in a quantum superposition of open and closed that only collapses when you try to take a tanker through yourself and see if you get shot at

Trump threatens to wipe out Iran’s ‘whole civilization.’ EU has no comment. “Honestly if we reacted every time somebody posted something outrageous online, that is all we would do,” an EU official says.

The EU has shrugged off Donald Trump’s threats to wipe out the “whole civilization” of Iran, with diplomats and officials signaling they weren’t taking the U.S. president’s remarks literally.

Opinion: Germany’s Building Modernisation Act leaves households exposed as government sidelines the heating transition In February, the German government presented a new national heating plan, the Building Modernisation Act, meant to replace the heating provisions under the Building Energy Act. The new plan would […]

A new op-ed by our director @tomvasseur.bsky.social, and Barbara Metz, director of @umwelthilfe.bsky.social explores why Germany’s proposed heating reform risks undermining the transition at a critical moment. 🇩🇪

#EnergySky #EUSky 🧵👇

Sustainable, affordable, and renewable: energy independence starts at home By Bianca Bittencourt and Tom Vasseur – About accelerating clean heating and scaling up investment to cut fossil fuel dependence and secure affordable energy for European households.

⚡🔌♨️ 77.6% of the EU's homes' energy use goes to heating. Deploying clean heat is not optional: it’s strategic. Energy independence starts at home.

Our article at #EUSEW lays out how to make sustainable, affordable, and renewable heating a reality.

Read at:

#EUSky #EnergySky

Not quite 'to each according to their needs' Government subsidies for energy costs, 2022-23, per cent of annual GDP Targeted v untargeted support measures. Untargeted measures dwarf targeted measures, costing multiples more

Banality 6: Paying poor people for nothing is cheaper than paying everyone to burn more. Guess which one we did last time.

Figure 8: Solar PV and heat pumps deployment in Europe Yearly additions in EU solar capacity, 2001-2024, GW Heat pump sales, units Both rise precipitously around 2022

Banality 5: It's the demand, stupid.

The only way to lower prices in a fossil supply shock is to substitute fossil demand with cleantech. This includes solar pushing gas out of grids; EVs and bikes pushing oil out of transport; heat pumps, district heating, and the like pushing gas out of homes. 🏠

Figure 7: EU electricity generated from coal versus unused generation potential, 2015-2024 It's going down but in 2024, 568TWh sat idle

Banality 4: The EU has a *lot* of untapped coal generation. Terrible for our lungs but if gas prices go up high enough, coal will be the soft cap.

😬🔥

Screenshot of text from the Bruegel article: "What not to do The temptation in a price shock is to suppress prices – as seen during the 2022-23 energy crisis. This would be a mistake. Capping wholesale gas prices (Corbeau et al, 2023), subsidising gas inputs to the electricity market, splitting the wholesale market into fossil and renewable segments or trying to collect windfall profits from renewables would all weaken price signals that drive efficiency, demand reduction and clean-energy investment. Similarly, weakening the EU’s emissions trading system would lead to more fossil-fuel use and would also reduce the revenues from auctioning of emissions allowances that countries use to fund industrial transition. This would send the wrong signal to clean energy investors14. Untargeted energy subsidies would compound the problem: they are fiscally expensive, benefit higher-income households the most and do nothing to reduce the fossil-fuel dependence that makes countries vulnerable to shocks such as that over Iran."

Banality 3: Tax cuts and consumption subsidies in a supply shock are expensive ways of making the problem worse.
(Or: what govs are currently trying is exactly what not to do)

Figure 4: Daily electricity price by country, seven-day rolling average There is a spike at the beginning of the crisis but Spain's price then drops back down, settling 9.5 times lower than Italy's

Banality 2: Those who have, since the last crisis, followed the EC's advice on decarbonisation are now reaping the benefits.

Spain's electricity mix went from gas setting the price 75% to 15% of hours. Same latitude as Italy but different politics: one will see 9x less pain for households.

Figure 1: Global LNG trade, 2025 Top 10 exporters and importers. Qatar is a major exporter and the EU the largest importer but only 11bcm of Qatari LNG goes to the EU

Figure 2: EU gas imports in 2025 by source EU imported 316 bcm in 2025. Qatari LNG is 4% of EU gas imports

Banality 1: We're in a global market but, on the gas side, the EU is far from worst-hit. We didn't rely much on the ME for our gas, the actual problem will be Asia trying to outbid us on US LNG.

How Europe should respond to the Iran gas shock – and how it shouldn’t The European Union should act now to head off growing impacts from the Iran conflict on gas prices and availability

Bruegel once again eloquently stating the obvious 🧵

#EUSky #EnergySky

www.bruegel.org/analysis/how...

Frustrating that policymakers would think we can have an "emissions trading system for road transport and buildings" which pretends that 70% of buildings don't exist

"Europe’s industrial base is having a bit of a split-screen moment. On one side: chemicals, metals and other energy-guzzling stalwarts. On the other: weapons, planes and anything with a defence budget attached."

Wow, wonder which side is aggressively calling for public money and deregulation #EUsky

Only the sharpest, wittiest, and snappiest insights in as few characters as possible.

The FT's conclusion is, and I quote:

😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬

Europe’s impotence extends to energy The political momentum behind decarbonising the continent’s energy system has dissipated

In the week since this @martinsandbu.ft.com piece, lobbying by challenged incumbents has (mostly) stalled. Two industry associations can't speak for "industry" when claiming that "competitiveness" requires turning back the clock to their glory days #EUSky 🔌💡 giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Nous vivons une nouvelle fois une hausse des prix du pétrole et du gaz.

En Europe, nous n'avons ni pétrole ni gaz.

(1/5)

My man, read the room. What does hydrogen production have to do with price of butter or with reducing dependence on energy imports? Go away with your single issue spam

A graph showing the price of natural gas in the EU over the last ten years. It is practically flat except for a series of massive spikes in 2022, peaking near 350€/MWh. There is small but noticeable uptick at the very end of the graph, as the price goes from 30€/MWh to 50€/MWh in the space of a week

For oil? Not yet but probably. For gas? Not even close. 2022 was baaaaad and we've had four years and a crisis to reduce gas dependency.

March infringements package: key decisions on energy In its regular package of infringement decisions, the European Commission pursues legal action against Member States for failing to comply with their obligations under EU law.

Overlooked news: EC opened infringement procedures against 19 govs for not making any National Building Renovation Plan 🥳 Mapping when and how we bring homes into the 21st century will do more for energy bills than yesterday's Citizens Energy Package
energy.ec.europa.eu/news/march-i...

#EUSky 🔌💡🏠

Eh? There's a fair number of differences but I'm not sure this is one. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine started on the 24th of Feb 2022; the US strikes on Iran started on the 28th of Feb. In both cases, we know just as we leave heating season that disruptions are likely by winter

Article misses the obvious. Of course, nat govs liked VdL's interventions in previous crises, she's usually excellent at reading the room. However, she has German biases and Germany's vastly different perspective on Mid East & Israel is so deeply rooted it's now invisible to them. Major blind spot.

Gas prices up by around 50% today.

A painful reminder that relying on imported fossil fuels is a risky strategy.

Screenshot of an archival document clearly written with an old typewriter. A truncated watermark says "of the European Commission". The title reads "A Summary of the objectives of an Energy Supply Policy for the Community in 1985". Below: I. Energy Demand To reduce estimated consumption in 1985 by 10% in relation to the amount initially estimated for 1985 by the more efficient use of energy. In step with the development of nuclear energy, to increase the consumption of electricity, which should in 1985 represent 35% of energy consumption (25% in 1972). II. Energy Supply To limit to 40% (63% in 1973) in 1985 the degree of Community dependence for energy on outside sources. To limit to 40% (60% in 1973) the share of oil in the overall energy supply. To limit to 75% (98% in 1973) the degree of dependence on outside sources for oil supplies. This implies production of 180 mtoe in the Community. To shift the emphasis of demand as a result, in particular by reducing consumption of heavy fuel oil in power stations. Original text can be found here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:51974DC0550

🚨Breaking*: European response to crisis in Iran: targets for energy efficiency (-10%), for electrification (35% by middle of next decade, up from 25% today) and for import dependency (40%, down from ~60% today). Details on national implementation to follow!

*Message seen: 53 years ago 🫠
#EUSky 🔌💡⚡

Am I reading it right that "peak left" across most measures was in 2010? The shift back to the right seems already set in by 2020, at least on those graphs. I would have put the shift much later

"Elon Musk, who, like Lazarus, flew too close to the bright (orange) sun"

Dear @pdallisonesque.bsky.social ,

You might be thinking of Icarus there. We can only hope that Musk does not make a Lazarus-like comeback in 2026.

What on earth are they referring to when they say that ETS2 is "not technologically neutral"? If you can sell a fuel which doesn't emit CO2, it won't get taxed by ETS2, whether it be hydrogen, e-fuels, biofuels, or Martian farts. It feels like a buzzword thrown in with no care for actual meaning

Is this up on Contexte yet? I can't find it anywhere