The Real Reason To Go Electric

I got into a little back-and-forth with somebody on Facebook. I know, I know … never engage anybody about anything on Facebook. It’s like screaming at a wall. At any rate, this person posted some flippant comment about how it was Obama’s fault that Crimea had been invaded by Russia. I’ve heard similar arguments about how Biden isn’t doing anything to stop Russia and this would “never happen if [Drumpf] were President”. I (sarcastically) LOVE the “what if” game that people play with world politics. There are so so so many factors that go into everything, and none of us (not even the politicians) can ever truly predict what one action over another will take. Plus, every country is (rightfully so) only looking out for themselves.

Anyway, I had recently watched the video below which analyzed why Russia is invading Ukraine. If you want a good analysis of why Putin and Russia are attacking Ukraine that doesn’t point fingers at anybody except Putin and Russia (because they’re to blame), then it’s a good watch. While defense is a big piece of the picture, the bigger point is money. Primarily gas and oil money.

The old soviet pipeline goes through Ukraine, which Russia was having to pay tariffs to use the portion of the pipeline that traveled through Ukraine to the rest of Europe. Additionally, there are vast oil reserves in the Black Sea which are currently in Ukraine’s coastal waters.

Further, the video explains that at least half of Russia’s relatively small economy (about the same as Spain) is due to oil and gas sales. Which got me thinking, if we really want to stick it to Russia (and other oil baron countries) we need to stop our dependency on oil and gas.

Guess I better start looking at electric cars.

Note: Don’t take your anger at Russia’s government out on your friendly neighborhood Russians. Many Russians and Russian ex-pats living here are just as horrified at the invasion.

This post has been day 56 of #100DaysToOffload