Lawmakers blast Biden administration sanctions waiver for Kremlin-backed Russian pipeline to Germany
Category: News & Politics
Via: vic-eldred • 3 years ago • 21 commentsBy: Jerry Dunleavy (MSN)
Lawmakers are concerned that a mandatory State Department report to Congress on Wednesday, obtained by the Washington Examiner, includes a provision waiving sanctions on the Kremlin-backed corporate entity and CEO overseeing the construction of Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline into Germany.
Under both former President Barack Obama and former President Donald Trump, the United States opposed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, designed to carry Russian natural gas to Europe under the Baltic Sea. The pipeline would bypass Ukraine, denying that U.S. partner the money it would make helping transport the energy itself, as the Kremlin attempts to squeeze Ukraine and gain influence in Europe.
Critics of the Russian pipeline project see it as a malign foreign influence operation by the Kremlin. Sanctions that the Trump administration placed on the Russian pipeline, which is nearly finished, forced construction to grind to a halt before completion.
The State Department report, due every 90 days, calls for sanctions against a handful of Russian ships. But Secretary of State Tony Blinken said in a statement, "I have determined that it is in the national interest of the United States to waive the application of sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG, its CEO Matthias Warnig, and Nord Stream 2 AG's corporate officers."
Warnig, CEO of Nord Stream 2, is a former member of the Stasi, the secret police for Soviet-controlled East Germany. He is listed as a deputy chairman of the board of directors of Russian state-controlled Rosneft energy company, and is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Also granted U.S. sanctions waivers on Tuesday were chief financial officer Paul Corcoran, chief protect officer Marco Casirati, chief commercial officer Reinhard Ontyd, and chief technical officer Pavel Persidskii.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, criticized this move.
"The administration has said that the pipeline is a bad idea and that it is a Russian malign influence project," Menendez said. "I share that sentiment, but fail to see how today's decision will advance U.S. efforts to counter Russian aggression in Europe."
Sen. James Risch of Idaho, the top Senate Foreign Relations Committee Republican, was even harsher.
The waiver "is a gift to Putin that will only weaken the United States' leverage in the lead up to the impending Biden-Putin summit," Risch said. "It is deeply disturbing that this administration canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline on its first day, killing thousands of U.S. and Canadian jobs. Yet, it continues to support Russian workers involved in a project that goes against U.S. and European security interests."
The State Department report issued Wednesday suggests the Biden administration doesn't want to get crosswise with ally Germany over the pipeline.
"The German government remains fully committed to the Nord Stream 2 project, insisting it is both a necessary and commercial undertaking and rejecting U.S. sanctions as an intervention in its internal affairs," the State Department said. "The EU and many of its member states continue to oppose U.S. sanctions related to Nord Stream 2, viewing them as a violation of German and EU sovereignty."
The State Department claimed that imposing sanctions on Warnig and others "would negatively impact U.S. relations with Germany, the EU, and other European allies and partners." The report added: "Close cooperation with Germany, the EU, and other European allies and partners will also be critical in the success of U.S. efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic; fight climate change; promote a sustainable economic recovery; defend our democracies against authoritarianism; counter malign behavior by Russia and China; and address other global challenges such as Iran."
Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the ranking House Foreign Affairs Committee Republican, blasted that rationale
"The completion of this pipeline will threaten Ukraine's security, deepen Europe's dangerous energy dependence on the Kremlin and further enrich the corrupt Putin regime," McCaul said.
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The logic of the left:
American oil/pipelines/jobs bad. Russian oil/pipelines/jobs good.
This not yet a fait accompli ... what is given by the left hand can be withdrawn by the right hand. If it is a mistake, it is Germany's and the EU's to make or are they not sovereign entities?
As people who once worked on the Keystone Pipeline now understand.
If it is a mistake, it is Germany's and the EU's to make or are they not sovereign entities?
Germany is a sovereign/pacifist nation. Whatever decisions it makes, it can make without US approval. The US is also a sovereign nation. What happened to American interests? What happened to democrats wanting to get tough with Russia?
Canada's oil is among the dirtiest in the world that can be refined into far fewer usable products than most other sources, even Canadians don't want it. Why the US would want it when they are flush is beyond me. Remember Vic, your hero turned the US into a major exporter. Keystone is for all intents and purposes just a political football.
But we are off on a tangent, and I know how much you dislike such wandering.
Yup, tar sands. Must be very expensive to extract the oil from the tar sands. No profits to the US. No benefit to the US. Very few permanent jobs.
Biden favors that nice clean Russian energy. The kind Germany is about to become dependent on.
No need to get silly Vic ... even if it is your seed.
But your president.
This far it's Putin - 1 Biden - 0
I have a Prime Minister and I don't keep a scorecard. I think we can agree that your scorecard will be jaded for the next 3-1/2 years.
Gotta run, I have a backyard picnic to set up for the twice vaccinated nobility.
Have a good one. Don't forget the mask.
It’s not like it’s not coming here. Now it just gets to our refineries by train rail cars traveling through densely populated urban areas train tracks pass through. Or by tanker trucks on our major interstates. And of course the carbon footprint of the trucks and trains is far greater.
Our LNG is cleaner burning than the Russian gas is.
No oil from the Keystone pipeline was staying in the U.S. - it was being shipped elsewhere. There would have been minimal permanent jobs. No benefit to the US.
"The Keystone XL pipeline will transport crude oil from Alberta, Canada to Nebraska. The oil will then flow through another pipeline to Gulf Coast refineries, where it will be refined into petroleum products like gasoline.
Gulf Coast refineries export about two-thirds of their products, according to a U.S. Energy Information Administration report in January. The rest is sold in the U.S. That is a marked shift since 2012, when refineries exported about 38 percent of their products.
The Gulf Coast exports of crude oil -- oil that has not been refined into everything from butane to gasoline -- spiked during the same time period. Companies exported about 280,000 barrels of crude oil every day last year, compared to 4,000 in 2012."
.
Remember, I deal in facts.
None of that discounts the truth I have provided.
And to worsen it, converting an existing refinery over to handle the crap oil from Canada, may actually effect US gas prices since we would have at least 1 less refinery for US needs.
Where is it?
The refineries that had been refining Venezuela oil are refining the Canadian oil. Both are similarly difficult to refine. Since we no longer import oil from Venezuela there was no capacity issue with the oil from Canada. Democrats prefer dealing with their ideological soul mates in Venezuela to those in Alberta.
Biden is colluding with Russians.