German authorities on Wednesday issued a final approval for a new gas pipeline from Russia, risking higher tensions with eastern neighbors fearful of European energy dependence on Moscow. —AFP, 28 March 2018
Germany has given the go-ahead for a Russian gas pipeline despite the furor over Russia’s chemical attack in the UK. The pipeline is a purely “economic project”, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and foreign minister Heiko Mass recently reaffirmed. Those views are diametrically opposed to positions taken by most EU states, EU institutions, and the US. The US has threatened to impose sanctions on the EU firms – Engie, OMV, Uniper, Shell, and Wintershall – planning to co-finance the pipeline, which could force Russia to find the money elsewhere. —EUObserver, 28 March 2018
Meanwhile, a rare cross-party alliance of high-ranking German politicians from Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, the environmentalist Greens and pro-business Free Democrats in February warned against allowing Nord Stream 2 to go ahead. It would “split the EU politically and call into question our solidarity with Poland, our Baltic neighbors, Slovakia and Ukraine, but also Sweden and Denmark,” they wrote in a letter to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. —AFP, 28 March 2018
Freezing Siberian storms and even frostier relations with the Kremlin have left Europe pondering its co-dependent relationship with Russia in which both are bound by an economic addiction to fossil fuels. Russia supplies a third of Europe’s gas, and the flexing of energy market muscle is a consistent tactic in the country’s geopolitical playbook. “The threat to European energy security is not the turning off of gas taps, but I think the greater threat is excessively high prices in uncompetitive markets,” Jack Sharples says. —Jillian Ambrose, The Daily Telegraph, 24 March 2018
In a statement that is sure to provoke Russian backlash, while also sending a strong message to both Moscow and European energy markets, Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Rick Perry said on Thursday before the Senate Armed Services committee that moving U.S. energy supplies into Eastern Europe is one of the more powerful ways to contain Russian influence. –Tim Daiss, OilPrice, 27 March 2018
Who is actively fighting to ensure government policies shutter U.S. nuclear energy facilities; keep domestic coal, natural gas, and oil in the ground; force up energy prices through taxes and regulations; and endanger national security by installing wind farms near military bases? If you answered, “the Sierra Club and its allies,” you’re correct, though you might be surprised to find that one of the latter is the Russian government. –H. Sterling Burnett, The American Spectator, 27 March 2018
So will Greenpeace go there and try to block the pipeline will they send a bunch of useful idiots to trying and stop it like they did with the Keystone pipeline