There was a kind of hilarious article last week that I had up in our headlines section. I forget what sort of snarky comment I’d added to the headline for it, but what it boiled down to was pissy progressives packing up and moving to the Netherlands because TRUMP.
Number Of ‘Trumpugees’ Leaving America Continues to Rise
A week ahead of a crucial Supreme Court decision which delivered yet another blow to the United States’ transgender community on Monday, Grover Wehman-Brown was in the midst of packing ahead of their big move to Europe.
Since President Donald Trump’s first electoral victory in 2016, Wehman-Brown, a transgender writer and consultant, had noticed that things were changing in the country: the public opinion on LGBTQ+ rights was quickly turning. In the months leading up to November last year, they became sure: the U.S. was no longer a country where their nontraditional, LGBTQ+ family could thrive, or even feel welcome.
In the days leading up to their planned move to the Netherlands came yet more confirmation of their fears. With a 6-3 vote, a majority of the Supreme Court justices ruled on June 18 that Tennessee could bar trans youth from accessing puberty blockers and hormone therapy. On June 30, the court ruled to throw out judicial decisions that favored transgender people in cases from North Carolina, West Virginia, Idaho and Oklahoma.
Yes, life is so intolerable here that the Netherlands is the only viable alternative to hell on Earth.
I recalled this article this morning with another round of smirking when I read the latest news out of the woke af Netherlands, and I do hope all the Trumpugees, as they’ve dubbed themselves, have a whale of a good time living in what is basically the California of Euorpe…only without a decent beach.
A big investigative series by the Financial Times dropped about the state of the Dutch electrical grid, and I hope the Trumpugees brought candles, thick bankies for that damp, cold winter, and solar lanterns to read The Atlantic by.
They’re going to need them.
Netherlands RATIONS electricity as country struggles to cope with turning away from gas
The Netherlands is rationing electricity as its overloaded power grid buckles under the pressure of rapid electrification and ambitious climate goals.
More than 11,900 businesses are stuck in a queue for access to the network, alongside public buildings including hospitals, schools and fire stations.
Thousands of new homes are also waiting to be connected, with some areas warned they may have to wait until the 2030s.
The crisis has emerged as the country scrambles to cut carbon emissions.
And now experts are warning that Britain, as well as Belgium and Germany, are all ‘in trouble.’
Three years ago, I was already telling you how the Dutch grid was in such dire shape that the government was asking residents to limit their showers to five minutes, while keeping the fall and winter thermostats during the day to 66°F and the nighttime temperature at 59°F.
All of this at the same time that the Dutch government was shutting down the largest natural gas field in Europe, the Ukraine War, Russian gas cut-off, energy blackouts, or no.
The climate cult uber alles.
The Groningen gas field in the Netherlands is vast. It’s the largest in the European Union, and one of the 10 biggest in the world. Its available reserves of about 450 billion cubic meters are equivalent to all the EU’s needs for one year.
It’s exactly the kind of precious (if non-renewable) economic resource that would normally be front and center in an energy crisis like the one afflicting the region today. Every molecule of gas counts at a time when Europe is scrambling to cut its ties to Russia — source of about 40% of the EU’s gas consumption — by chasing new suppliers, investing in renewables, curbing demand and wringing existing sources dry.
But that’s not what’s happening. Groningen production is actually being wound down with a view to halting it next year, part of a long-standing pledge to address earthquake risks and environmental damage. (Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij BV, a venture of Shell Plc and Exxon Mobil Corp., operates the field and is bound by current production limits. The Dutch state is a co-owner.)
More windmills have not been the answer, surprise. Not that the Dutch government hasn’t tried to get some up offshore. It’s that no one wants to buy the leases or build them at the moment.
For all the gobs of billions of dollars in the industry, there’s not enough money in it to take the chance on another project, even in green-grift-addled Europe. They’re going to try to have another lease offering in October since the one this spring fell through with no takers. The government will, of course, have to sweeten that pot. So weird how that works.
…The deteriorating market conditions require a Government that helps the market through this phase. The Government is therefore working on an action plan for offshore wind energy that can improve the investment climate for offshore wind and at the same time the investment climate for electrification by its customers. For the period from 2027 onwards, financial support instruments will also be considered, such as a minimum and maximum price guarantee (Contract for Difference).
The pace-setting Dutch Green government is all about the wind industry and not a thing about the Dutch consumer.
Which is what has gotten them between a rock and the proverbial hard place – aka reality.
…Dutch infrastructure struggles under electrification pressure. The Netherlands moved fastest among European nations to electrify critical economic sectors after ending production at its Groningen gasfield in 2023. More than 2.6 million Dutch homes now feature solar panels on rooftops, while companies accelerated their transition away from gas following the EU’s energy price crisis in 2022. The rapid shift exposed infrastructure vulnerabilities that had developed over decades of gas dependency.
“The country had been so used to relying on its gas resources that power grid upgrades had not kept pace,” Tennet, the national power grid operator, acknowledged. The resulting bottlenecks create some of the highest electricity costs in western Europe, with monthly prices roughly €30 per megawatt hour higher than France this year.
Investment requirements reveal the scale of the challenge. The Dutch government estimates €200 billion in investment for cables and new substations through 2040. Some funding will come from Tennet’s German power grid sale to private investors, valued at approximately €20 billion. However, the majority must be covered through asset amortization, with consumers bearing the cost through tariff increases averaging 4.3% to 4.7% annually until 2034.
Yay! Consumers get boned again!
It’s not like Dutch utility rate payers weren’t also well out ahead of their European peers in the pay-through-the-nose-for-less category.
Nice of their rulers to keep them that way.
The first country in Europe has begun to ration electricity, and this may soon become the norm for other countries.
Thousands of businesses and homes are waiting to be connected to the Dutch system.
Forcing rationing of power. Slava EU pic.twitter.com/pDyG4cHD4x
— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) July 13, 2025
All of these countries are vying for the AI centers, and none of them remotely have the power or potential to even begin to take advantage of the technology and the data center explosions coming with it. And, Lordy – who wants to pay that tab?
…Connection queues reveal system strain. The Netherlands faces up to 10-year wait times for new data center connections, the longest among surveyed jurisdictions. Germany experiences up to 7-year delays, while the United Kingdom faces 5-7 year queues. Ireland has paused new data center connections in Dublin until 2030. These delays reflect broader European infrastructure limitations as AI demands accelerate.
Grid congestion costs multiply across markets. Between 2019 and 2022, congestion management costs tripled in Germany, the United States, and Great Britain. The Netherlands experienced a sixfold increase during the same period. Despite decreasing natural gas prices reducing some costs, congestion volumes continue increasing across European markets.
Natural gas prices have fallen, but when your grid is unreliable renewables-dependent, that doesn’t help you, does it?
Great planning there while you save the world.
As far as the current rationing, Dutch authorities are on top of the situation.
…Officials are responding to the issue in the Netherlands, as usual, by tinkering around the edges—for example, by asking consumers to charge their electric bikes and cars outside of peak times.
That should help. ‘Peak times’ is when everyone is home and the only time they’d have to charge their scooter, so…yeah.
In a desperate move, the government has legalized those itty-bitty, kid-sized scooters, and the Dutch are not happy with it.
The first mini electric scooters, known as “steps” in Dutch, have been licenced for use on Dutch roads and are already being spotted in Amsterdam, the Parool reported at the weekend.
So far, only e-scooters from one brand have been cleared for use by the vehicle licencing authority. Users must be over 16, the scooters may not exceed 25kph, and helmets are not compulsory. Each scooter must also be fitted with a blue number plate.
The Dutch capital is unhappy about the arrival of the scooters on Amsterdam’s bike lanes and roads, and city transport chief Melanie van der Horst said she is looking into measures to keep them out.
“In Belgium, someone is taken to a hospital emergency department every eight hours because of an accident involving a scooter,” she told the Parool. “That is not something to look forward to here.”
Hey! You’re saving the planet! Kwicher bitchin’!
Now, follow along with me here. The gobsmacking thing is that you don’t have to wear a helmet on these tiny death mobiles, but they’re licensed for the road. Which is something – the actual pavement – your entire body is very close to as you’re balanced on one of these as cars go zipping by.
What if – this is a hypothetical, of course – it’s just one more Malthusian-inspired, globalist plan to rid the world of a few more unwanted, resource-devouring bodies?
Don’t need a shower if you’re dead.
Nah.
Forget I mentioned it.
They’d never think that way.
Welp – hope those turncoat wussy Yanks are lovin’ it there.
