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By Paul Homewood
This has to be the most hilarious piece of news today!
A raft of top European companies will be forced to pull out of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project with Russia or face crippling sanctions under draconian legislation racing through the US Congress.
Berlin and Brussels have threatened retaliation if Washington presses ahead with penalties on anything like the suggested terms, marking a dramatic escalation in the simmering trans-Atlantic showdown over America’s extra-territorial police powers.
A consortium of Shell, Engie, Wintershall, Uniper, and Austria’s OMV is providing half the €9.5bn (£8.5bn) funding for the 760-mile pipeline through the Baltic Sea to Germany. “This is a spectacular interference in internal European affairs,” said Isabelle Kocher, the director-general of Engie in France.
The wording of the US legislation is so broad that it could sweep up dozens of firms in different ways. “The measures could impact a potentially large number of European companies doing legitimate business,” said the European Commission.
An internal note by the Commission said the EU should “stand ready to act within days” if US imposes sanctions unilaterally without securing some degree of consent from the European side.
Hubertus Heil, general-secretary of Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD), called the bill a naked attempt by ‘America-first’ forces to seize market share for coming deliveries of US liquefied natural gas. “It is an attack on the basic principle of free trade. Europe must give a strong united answer to this,” he said.
The House and Senate in Congress reached a deal on the Russian sanctions over the weekend with slight changes to the text. The White House has signaled that President Donald Trump will not veto the bill even though it locks in a hostile relationship with Russia for years to come.
Merkel and co have been at the forefront of condemning Trump for exiting Paris.
But they’re still happy to buy Russian gas!
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
July 25, 2017 at 05:18AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 