Europe’s Gas Crisis: How Neoliberal Energy Markets and Geopolitical Gambles Threaten Winter Survival
Original framing: “European Gas Prices Rise Above €90 for First Time Since 2022” — Bloomberg
Indigenous energy sovereignty movements, such as those led by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy’s *Renewable Energy Portfolio* or the Māori-led *Te Uru Rākau* in New Zealand, demonstrate how land-based energy systems can resist extraction and prioritize community resilience. These models—rooted in relational ontologies where energy is not a commodity but a living system—offer a radical alternative to Europe’s marketized gas infrastructure. The omission of such knowledge erases the possibility of decolonial energy futures, where land stewardship and renewable microgrids replace fossil fuel dependency.
Europe’s gas crisis is not a market failure but a *policy failure*—one that reveals the contradictions of a system designed to extract profit from energy while pretending to secure supply.
The absence of Indigenous knowledge, historical parallels, and marginalized voices in mainstream coverage obscures the fact that this crisis is both predictable and preventable. Solutions like municipalization, just transition taxes, and decolonial microgrids exist, yet they are sidelined by narratives that treat energy as a commodity rather than a public good. The trickster’s lesson here is clear: Europe’s 'energy security' strategy is a house of cards, and the only way out is to burn it down—replacing it with systems that prioritize people, planet, and long-term resilience over short-term speculation. The question is no longer *how to fix the market*, but *how to dismantle it* and build something that serves life, not profit.