Biden Administration flip-flops on Russian pipeline, green-lighting Putin’s project while cancelling new American pipelines

The Biden-Harris administration announced it will remove sanctions on Russian pipeline company Nord Stream 2 AG and its CEO, clearing the way for Russia to complete the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline. Greenlighting this project will expand Vladimir Putin’s influence in Europe and follows Biden’s cancellation of a significant American pipeline project on his first day in office. 

The move comes just months after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in his confirmation hearing that “I am determined to do whatever we can to prevent that completion” of Nord Stream 2. During a visit to Stockholm in 2016, Biden himself said the pipeline is a “fundamentally bad deal for Europe.”

But this pipeline is not just a bad deal for Europe — it is a bad deal for American workers. Europe has potential as a huge new market for American energy exporters. Russia had feared competition from American suppliers, but now the Biden Administration is weakening the United States’ domestic fossil fuel industry and ceding jobs to Putin.

Fox Business: Biden clears way for Russian pipeline after blocking Keystone Pipeline in US

“If these reports are true, they would indicate the Administration was never planning to do whatever it could to ‘prevent the completion’ of Nord Stream 2 – despite promises made to the contrary by Secretary Blinken in his confirmation hearing earlier this year,” GOP Rep. Michael McCaul, Texas, top Republican on House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement. “If the Putin regime is allowed to finish this pipeline, it will be because the Biden Administration chose to let it happen.”

Axios: Scoop: Biden to waive sanctions on company in charge of Nord Stream 2

The big picture: As Axios has previously reported, the completion of Nord Stream 2 would be a huge geopolitical win for Putin and give him substantial new leverage in Europe.

Bottom Line: Joe Biden ran as a tough-on-Russia candidate, but when push came to shove, he chose to advance Russia’s geopolitical interests at the expense of American workers and European allies.