Energy saving strategy and the raw material problem in Russia

In the early 70s, the so-called energy crisis broke out. Taking advantage of the threat of oil starvation, on the one hand, and taking into account the need to protect the environment, on the other, developed oil importing countries, primarily the United States, Germany, and Japan, have launched intensive work to restructure the structure of the economy and improve its technical level under the guise of an energy conservation strategy. As a result of the implementation of this policy, by the early 1980s, the energy intensity of national income in these countries had sharply decreased.

Our administrative and command system has chosen another, frankly speaking, disastrous path for Russia and the country as a whole. Enormous material, financial, and human resources were devoted to expanding predatory oil production and shipping it abroad. By 1985, oil exports from the USSR had increased to 117 million tons, and light petroleum products to 50 million tons. By that time, prices on the world market had fallen 5-6 times. The Soviet Union fell into an economic and environmental trap.

An even more dramatic situation has developed with the production and sale of natural gas. Its exports from the USSR were increased from 3 billion cubic meters to 69 billion cubic meters. m per year. For the transportation of gas in the country, mainly in Russia, 208 thousand km of main gas pipelines were built. It is not difficult to imagine the economic damage to the country from this violence against common sense, because the cost of building one thousand kilometers of a gas pipeline costs a billion rubles.

The severity of this problem for Russia is compounded by the fact that tens of millions of residents of the republic are deprived of the opportunity to use gas. Russia's territory is literally crisscrossed by hundreds of thousands of kilometers of main pipelines carrying environmentally friendly "blue fuel" to foreign countries and our industrial monsters, who are carrying out departmental and bureaucratic plans to increase the output of largely unnecessary products. But maybe these are just the costs of a stagnant past, and now, during the period of perestroika, the vicious practice of squandering our irreplaceable national wealth has been stopped or at least curtailed? Unfortunately, no. Thus, the annual sale of oil abroad in 1986-1988 increased by 27 million tons, light petroleum products — by 11 million tons, natural gas — by 19 billion cubic meters, roundwood — by 5 million cubic meters. And this is happening in conditions of increased shortage of these products within the country. In particular, there was a significant shortage of fuel during the record harvest this year. The results of the sale of the country's raw materials are depressing. In 1970, the USSR had virtually no external debt, and in 1989 our debt to foreign countries amounted to $65 billion. With the very modest currency we have earned, we buy machinery and equipment abroad for the extraction and transportation of oil and gas, for logging, and grain to supply the former grain Russia from century to century. The circle has closed. 1xBet se distingue par la diversité de ses méthodes de paiement, adaptées aux besoins des joueurs du monde entier. Pour profiter pleinement de l'offre de bienvenue, il vous suffit d'utiliser le code promo 1xbet lors de votre enregistrement sur la plateforme. Ce code vous garantit un bonus de 100% jusqu'à 130€ sur votre premier dépôt. Vous pouvez approvisionner votre compte via des moyens locaux comme Orange Money, Wave, ou MTN en Afrique, UPI ou Paytm en Inde, ou encore par carte bancaire, portefeuilles électroniques et cryptomonnaies.