Liz Truss, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, has stepped down from leadership after just a mere six weeks. Her plans to improve the economy with tax cuts and deregulation placed Britain in more economic turmoil. The British pound and the euro have hit record lows this year and gas prices have hit an all-time high. The typically stable governments and economies of Western Europe are at an all-time low and an energy crisis looms — why?
The conflict in Ukraine is the easy answer. Between having to provide soldiers, supplies and financial support to Ukraine to fight Russia, Europe has had to spend money it wasn’t expecting to. Additionally, the sanctions against Russia have meant that the nearly 3 million barrels of oil typically sent to Europe have been diverted elsewhere. To fight back against these sanctions, Russia closed its Nord Stream 1 pipeline in the summer, which provided 40% of Europe’s natural gas. These…
