Finale of the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline Politics Soap Opera
What’s going to happen at the end of this spicy energy policy drama?
The trans-Atlantic and European political scene seems reluctant to let go of the drama regarding German households and how they might keep their homes warm in the winter months. It’s a facetious way to put it, but the controversy over the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline that has now reached its physical completion would seem to be a matter of Germans on the one hand having a more manageable utility bill in the winter months and on the other hand the Ukrainian and Polish governments, and the respective energy companies taking a haircut on the fees that they have become accustomed to collecting for the transit of gas through their countries. As the show has unfolded though, the European east-west energy soap opera also involves the watchful eye of Washington peeking over the Atlantic at the scheme Russia and Germany have been working on for the past decade.
Gazprom, the Russian gas group that handles the execution of Nord Stream 2, has announced the physical completion of the natural gas pipeline that connects Russia directly to Germany by way of the Baltic Sea. Now, it is in the hands of German regulators to crunch the four-month administrative process that will then have to pass approval from the European…
