Europe’s next energy crunch

province of Groningen sits on Europe’s biggest proven gasfield. Decades of extraction have caused small earthquakes that have left thousands of houses unstable, leading the government to reduce gas flows to a minimum and promise to shut the field by 2024. Gas prices are now so high that if it allowed regular pumping, the government could make every owner of a wobbly home a millionaire. But that is politically impossible. Even in the midst of an energy crisis, which could get worse in 2023, support for boosting energy production is shaky. Most businesses and households are understandably focusing on staying warm (and solvent) through this winter, not the next one. Policymakers are scrambling to help them with billions of euros. In early September, the German government coalition agreed on a new package of measures worth €65bn ($62.5bn), and then added another €200bn at the end of the month. Italy’s incoming government will come under immediate pressure to raise the country’s aid packages, already worth 3% of .