Following a Biden administration move to lift U.S. sanctions blocking completion of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, critics are charging that the new president — who canceled the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office — is more concerned about Russian energy jobs and independence than he is about America’s own. . . .

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The administration last week announced it is waiving sanctions on both the Russian company behind the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and its top executive, Matthias Warnig, a confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The pipeline will directly connect Russia to Germany, allowing the former to double its natural gas deliveries to the latter, handing Moscow significant leverage over the Germans and most of the Eastern European energy market.

The 764-mile line has remained roughly 90% complete for many months, as objections from crosspartisan political majorities across Europe and Capitol Hill have prevented the Russians from completing the project.

Many are baffled by the abrupt decision to effectively allow completion of the pipeline that Secretary of State Antony Blinken as recently as this month called “a bad idea” that “advances Russia’s interests and undermines Europe’s interests and our own.”  . . .

“The administration has said that the pipeline is a bad idea and that it is a Russian malign influence project,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said in a statement. “I share that sentiment, but fail to see how today’s decision will advance U.S. efforts to counter Russian aggression in Europe.”

The decision, he added, has “created uncertainty in many corners of Europe.” . . .

“Today’s actions demonstrate the Administration’s commitment to energy security in Europe, consistent with the President’s pledge to rebuild relationships with our allies and partners in Europe,” said Blinken in a statement. “We will continue to oppose the completion of this project, which would weaken European energy security and that of Ukraine and Eastern flank NATO and EU countries. Our opposition to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is unwavering.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has welcomed Biden’s decision, as the U.S. president attempts to strengthen the close relationship with Germany that former President Trump frequently challenged, including on the matter of Nord Stream 2. . . .

“Germany is totally controlled by Russia, because they will be getting 60%-70% of their energy from Russian and a new pipeline,” said Trump. Germany is the sixth largest energy consumer in the world and the largest consumer of natural gas. . . .

Even as Biden defers to Merkel on the Russian pipeline in a bid to rekindle the bilateral relationship, he continues to slight U.S. ally Canada over pipeline politics.

Top Biden administration ally Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer late last year ordered the shutdown of Canadian energy company Enbridge’s Line 5 — a line that transports more than half a million barrels a day of oil and natural gas liquids from Alberta’s oil fields to the U.S. Midwest and eastern Canada.

Enbridge, backed by the Canadian government, is now fighting Michigan in U.S. federal court to keep the pipeline in operation. . ..

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is being encouraged to stand his ground in the face of the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline and the threatened shutdown of Line 5, which has been in operation since 1953. . . .

Tensions are also brewing around another Enbridge pipeline — Line 3, which is a crude oil line that extends from Alberta through Minnesota to Wisconsin. Hundreds of protesters are planning to gather in early June to “put our bodies on the line, to stop construction and tell the world that the days of tar sands pipelines are over,” declares the organization leading the demonstration. “We will propel this issue to the top of the nation’s consciousness and force Biden to act.”

With Keystone XL nixed, and Line 5 hanging in the balance, the question is whether the U.S. president will again bow to climate activists at home — with attendant costs for American workers, energy independence, and relationship with Canada — while bolstering Russian energy interests and pipeline development. Secretary Blinken is scheduled to appear this week before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he is expected to provide some clarity on the administration’s thinking. . . .

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(Excerpt from Just the News. Article by Sohpie Mann. Photo Credit: The White House Flickr.)