Biden Administration Reaches Deal with Germany Allowing Completion of the Russian Nord Stream 2 Pipeline

July 21, 2021

Today, the State Department announced that the Biden administration and Germany have reached an agreement allowing the completion of the Russian Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. The pipeline will allow Russia to double its deliveries of natural gas directly to Germany.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The benefits of the deal to the U.S. and Ukraine are less tangible, with U.S. and German officials agreeing to assist Kyiv in energy-related projects and diplomatic initiatives. A U.S. request for a so-called kill-switch clause, enabling Berlin to suspend gas flows in the event of Russian aggression toward its neighbors or Western allies, wasn’t included, officials said.

U.S. officials under two previous presidential administrations opposed Nord Stream 2, seeing it as a way for Moscow to heighten its economic and political sway across Europe and trying to stop the project through international pressure and sanctions.

The hypocrisy of the Biden administration is baffling. On his first day in office, Biden signed an overreaching order to cancel the Keystone pipeline that immediately took away over 10,000 American union jobs and the vital infrastructure project that would have safely transported oil and gas from Canada to Texas.

Yet, he had no problem allowing the completion of the Russian Nord Stream 2 Pipeline that both President Obama and President Trump’s administrations opposed, given the geopolitical win it would be for Russia. Biden just gave Putin that win and new leverage across Europe, while weakening our stance on the national stage and our domestic oil and gas industry. This makes America’s allies more dependent on Russian energy, a nation Trump went head-to-head with to gain our energy independence that has now been lost under the Biden administration.

Biden continues to push policies that put the United States in a vulnerable position on the world stage, while also hurting American citizens in the process.