The deteriorating market for methane gas in Europe is forcing countries like the UK, Austria, and Germany to return to coal-fired power to prevent an energy supply crisis. Russian-gas company Gazprom recently limited the flow of methane gas from Russia to Germany and the rest of Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, and it is unknown when those flows will return to normal levels. Gazprom blamed maintenance issues for the reduction, but European leaders are calling the move a political tactic by Russian President Putin. European policymakers are now scrambling for extra shipments of methane gas, but the prolonged outage at the Freeport LNG plant in Texas has made fewer cargoes available from the US, which Europe was relying on to fill storage tanks before winter comes. (CNBC, New York Times $,TIME $, Bloomberg 1 $, Bloomberg 2 $, Bloomberg 3 $)
