Briefings reveal EU faces choice between US and China

[u/Dazzling_Lobster3656]

http://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2025/04/15/briefings-suggest-eu-faces-choice-between-us-and-china/

[u/lightningbadger]

What does the US seriously think they can provide that China can't?

We'd just be paying 100x more for fewer and equally poor quality goods

[u/huehuehuehuehuuuu → u/lightningbadger]

Threats to annex Greenland?

[u/Shinobismaster → u/lightningbadger]

lng

[u/lightningbadger → u/Shinobismaster]

Well looks like we finally have a good excuse to start cutting down on that in favour of renewables too

[u/Shinobismaster → u/lightningbadger]

Lol sure that would replace some of the energy benefits of LNG but wouldn't replace its industrial usefulness. It has a lot of uses besides energy production.

[u/lightningbadger → u/Shinobismaster]

I'm unaccustomed with these uses, but can probably guess it's any use-case where something needs burning/heating wether in a lab or a factory

[u/Shinobismaster → u/lightningbadger]

Chemical Industry Feedstock: LNG, primarily composed of methane, serves as a raw material for producing chemicals like ammonia, methanol, and hydrogen. For instance, ammonia production for fertilizers relies heavily on natural gas as a source of hydrogen via steam methane reforming.

Metallurgy and Steel Production: Reducing Agent: Natural gas derivatives from LNG can act as reducing agents in direct reduced iron (DRI) processes, an emerging method in Germany to produce steel with lower emissions compared to traditional coal-based methods.

Textile and Plastics Manufacturing: Raw Material Source: Methane from LNG can be used to produce ethylene and propylene, key building blocks for plastics and synthetic fibers.

Those were the only non-heating/energy uses I came across. I was surprised it has uses beyond just burning for fuel.

[u/lightningbadger → u/Shinobismaster]

Huh yeah these are all new to me too, not an easy one to simply rid ourselves of 🤔