Europe 'Ends' Russian Gas as US LNG Companies Soar
Bloomberg breathlessly reports Europe is 'nearing a deal' to end Russian fossil fuel imports, a move praised as embedding 'the end of the bloc’s reliance on its former top energy supplier.' What's conveniently absent from this triumphant headline is who filled the void. After the Nord Stream pipelines went mysteriously silent, US Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exports to Europe exploded. The
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget confirmed that by 2023, the US became the world's largest LNG exporter, with much of it headed across the Atlantic. (See: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Natural Gas Monthly, 2023 data.) So, the 'deal to end reliance' wasn't really about energy independence, was it? It was a geopolitical pivot that funneled billions from one supplier to
another—specifically, to US energy giants. One might wonder if the war in Ukraine was less about democracy and more about shifting market shares for global energy conglomerates. How many 'historic' policy shifts are just rebranded profit transfers?