Because Natural Gas just doesn’t seem to be a viable option, given that most of the supplies are locked up in Russia and Gazprom really likes to play politics. Nearly 50% of the Ukraine’s (excessive) power consumption comes from Natural Gas, and nearly 75% of those supplies are from Russia. Ukraine has quite a bit of coal, and I’m sure the US would be willing to sell them more at a very discounted rate.
However, if the Ukraine was to go all coal, just think of the black soot they could put up in the air and left drift to the East? Or maybe they could just turn off the lights now and then:
The Ukraine is pretty annoyed with Russia’s operations in Georgia and has started to strike back, this time with some ‘regulations’ on the use of the Ukrainian port in the Crimea. By way of background, the Russian Black Sea fleet is based in the Ukraine at the port of Sevastopol until 2017 (follow that link if you want to know more). The Ukrainian government is no friend of Russia and they have announced that Russian naval vessels need to request permission 10 days in advance before returning to the port. Russia says ‘you can’t be serious.’
Four ships of the fleet based in the Ukraine were sent to support Russian operations in Georgia and when they come back, perhaps we’ll see some more fireworks.
