How A Fight Over Natural Resources Is Quietly Driving The World’s Response To Ukraine

Complicating the tug-of-war over Ukraine even more, Ukraine controls much of the network of pipelines that transport Russian gas to Europe. “More than a quarter of the EU’s total gas needs were met by Russian gas, and some 80 percent of it came via Ukrainian pipelines,” according to the Guardian.

European nations felt the pain in 2006 and 2009, when Gazprom cut supplies to Ukraine. Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Poland reported gas shortages. “Some closed schools and public buildings; Bulgaria shut down production in its main industrial plants; Slovakia declared a state of emergency,” the Guardian’s Jon Henley reports.

In the U.S., the crisis in Ukraine has become an opportunity for politicians and energy companies to renew the call for natural gas exports. In addition to using the situation to call for the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) said “we should be upping our exports of natural gas to this region and showing there will be real consequences to these kind of actions.”