The European Parliament has voted take the EU out of the Energy Charter Treaty.

That treaty is a threat to civilization because it penalizes member countries for effective measures to reduce use or extraction of fossil fuels.

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

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