The European Parliament has voted to take the EU out of the EnergyCharter Treaty.

That treaty is a threat to civilization because it penalizes membercountries for effective measures to reduce use or extraction of fossilfuels.

Even worse, it was designed to be impossible to effectively get outof. It says that countries that abrogate it are still subject to thetreaty's punishments for reducing the profits of petroleum companies.

If the EU decides to defy that, it may be powerful enough to kill theghost of the treaty.