For the United States, as bad as prices seem, it is way worse everywhere else. Natural gas prices in Europe are now ten times what they are in the United States, and the Europeans have zero reasons to expect their situation to improve one whit this year. Or next year. Or the year after. Europe has next to no local oil or natural gas production, and no shale sector to speak of. Instead, the Europeans have chosen to rely on solar and wind power (on the world’s cloudiest and calmest continent, no less), with a bit of bridge assistance from…the Kremlin.