What do you know about "primary energy"? Germany is starting to find out.

Very few people understand how crucial "primary energy" is.  As vital as electricity is, it's not primary energy:  Obviously some other form of energy must be expended to produce electricity.

Germany had six nuclear powerplants, which had operated flawlessly.  Following the decrees of former communists like Merkel (and her equally suspect predecessors), last December the German government ordered half of those six shut down, and have announced that the remaining three will be shut down at the end of this year (2022).

Now, if you've been paying attention you know that after Germany joined the west in opposing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Russia "temporarily" stopped selling gas to Germany.  Now Germany's leaders must decide whether to keep gas-fired generating plants running, or shut those down and divert other supplies of gas to industry and homes.

It takes a moment to understand the consequences of that decision, either way.  For example, BASF is Germany’s largest chemical manufacturer. The huge BASF complex uses huge amounts of natural gas.  If gas isn't available, 20,000 production-related jobs will vanish overnight.

Communists and anarchists are delighted by this prospect.  Production workers who would be unemployed, not so much.  The dilemma is a huge incentive for Germany to end its support for Ukraine.

Meanwhile, with half its nukes shut down, to keep electricity supplied to homes Germany has been forced to increase generation at coal-fired powerplants.

Wow.