Meddling in the $12 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline, 58-year-old Secretary of Sate Antony Blinken slapped new sanctions on Russia-based shipping company Transadria Ltd., including two tanker ships. Biden administration can’t stomach the fact that despite all their warnings of Germany growing dependent on Russian natural gas, 67-year-old former German Chancellor Angela Merkel backa the Nord Stream 2 pipeline bringing cheap methane gas from Russia to Germany. Countries that compete with Russia to sell natural gas to the Continent, like Ukraine, strongly oppose Nord Stream 2, despite its early unanimous support in Germany. Slapping the Russian company with sanctions covers up the fact that Germany wants a reliable natural gas supplier from a dependable source. When it comes to Russia, Germany would rather deal with Moscow to supply natural gas than Ukraine.
Democrats in Congress have been critical of Nord Stream 2 because it strengthens Germany’s ties with Moscow over Western natural gas suppliers. Slapping only Transadia with sanctions shows that President Joe Biden, 79, must take actions to respond to a Congressional report that warns of the EU growing dependence on Russian energy. “Even as the administration continues the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, including any our sanctions, we continue to work with Germany and other allies and partners to reduce the risks posed by the pipeline,” Blinken said in a statement. Since Nord Stream 2 is due to open up in 2021, there’s nothing the U.S. can do to stop the project which, no doubt, makes Germany more dependent on Russia. But what difference does it make whether Germany is more dependent on Russia than Ukraine or some other supplier? Gone are the days when the U.S. can make more arguments.
Russia isn’t currently well-liked in Brussels or Washington largely for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasions of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Pro-democracy protesters with the CIA’s help toppled the Kremlin-backed, duly elected government of Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych was chased out of Kiev by an angry mob Feb. 22, 2014, while Putin hosted the Sochi Winter Games. Once the games ended Feb. 23, 2014, Putin decided to take over Crimea to protect his warm water fleet housed in Sevasopol, Crimea. Putin didn’t start the pro-Western coup in Kiev, he opposed everything about it. Western officials should ask Klitschko, now the mayor of Kiev, if the Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed coup was worth it.? Ukraine lost Crimea because the CIA-backed coup threatened the Kremlin’s interests in Crimea, leaving Putin now choice to move in and seize the peninsula.
Ukraine’s relationship to the Biden White House has some complicated conflicts of interest, especially over Biden’s 50-year-old son’s Hunter’s dealing with Ukraine. Biden once landed Hunter a lucrative job on a corrupt Ukrainian natural gas company, Bursima Holdings. Hunter and his 44-year-old friend Devon Archer received $83,000 a month jobs on Bursima Holdings board. Hunter and Archer worked for about four years before stepping down when President Joe Biden ran for president. So Biden’s role with Ukraine is complicated, some would say a conflict-of-interest. Now Blinken hits Russia with new sanctions over Nord Stream 2, promising to give Ukraine compensation for allowing Russia to receive all the profit from natural gas sales. Biden just finished the COP26 Glasgow Climate Summit in which he, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson all agreed to go nuclear.
Whatever the climate consequences of Nord Stream 2, Biden puts up token resistance to placate Ukraine that stands to lose billions from ongoing natural gas sales to Germany. When Merkel decided after Fukushima-Daiichi melted down March 11, 2011, she committed Germany to ending its reliance on nuclear power. So, now that natural gas-fired power plants are fingered for carbon dioxide emissions, Merkel and other German officials are beginning to have second thoughts. Biden and his 52-year-old Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm did everything possible in Glasgow to sell the next generation of small, modular nuclear reactors. When it comes to Nord Strema 2 natural gas sales of Germany it’s a done deal. Whether Germany can be talked into nuclear power is anyone’s guess. Chances are the pendulum now swings back to nuclear power as a low carbon electricity alternative.
Germany promises to get cheap natural gas for years to come when the Nord Stream 2 goes online. U.S. officials can hit Nord Stream 2 with sanctions but there’s nothing Germany and Russia did that violates any treaties, even if they cut Ukraine out of the picture. Biden will no doubt find a way to throw cash at Kiev, since the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is about to deliver Germany all the natural gas it wants. Whether the world goes nuclear to produce energy in the future is anyone’s guess. There’s no reason to think the nuclear power industry will be down forever. Whatever happened behind the scenes at Glasgow’s COP26, it looks like U.S. nuclear power companies like Westinghouse and upstarts like Oregon’s NuScale power will get some big bucks once Biden’s next $2 trillion boondoggle gets passed by the House and Senate. Nuclear power companies stand to get billions in the near future.
