House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said Sunday that reducing Western Europe’s reliance on Russian gas is the “only way” to take on Moscow in a broader conflict between the two powers on the world stage, and in cyberspace.
Nunes, speaking on Fox News, said the U.S. can help that shift by doing “a lot more” to export liquefied natural gas to Europe.
“The only way we’ll ultimately take on Russia is to say, look we’re not going to be reliant on you for our energy,” Nunes said, who was in Eastern Europe this weekend to build support for the Trans Adriatic Pipeline.
The pipeline would take natural gas from the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan and transport it through Italy to Western Europe. The Trump administration supports the pipeline as a competitor to Nord Stream 2, a pipeline project that would transport natural gas from Russia to Germany. President Trump recently criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel for supporting Nord Stream 2, accusing Germany of being “captive” to Russian gas.
Italy, however, is resisting the 45-mile, $5.2 billion Trans Adriatic Pipeline, with the country’s new environment minister calling the project “pointless” because of what he says is a lack of demand.
Nunes, whose committee conducted an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, said Russian “propaganda” is spreading misinformation for Italy to oppose the pipeline. Sputnik, the Kremlin-aligned news outlet, recently called the pipeline “Trump’s Tool” in an economic war against Russia.
“One of the challenges that we’re having is that Russian propaganda is actually working in Italy,” Nunes said. “The Italians haven’t been able to sign off on this pipeline yet, which is totally nuts and part of the sophistication of Russia’s propaganda arm.”
Trump also wants to export more American LNG to Europe, now that America is the top producer of natural gas.
The European Commission said last week that a recent spike in LNG imports from the U.S. would be maintained and even expanded under Trump’s trade deal with Europe, as long as the U.S. honors its side of the bargain by cutting “red tape.” The statement of support came just a few weeks after Trump’s July 25 agreement with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to strengthen EU-U.S. strategic cooperation on energy amid growing tensions over trade.
“If we, the United States, if we now can export LNG, if we can begin to move more gas to Western Europe, and if you could move gas … with this Trans-Caspian gas line into Italy, you now have two solid sources of gas into Europe which then I think really puts the pressure on Germany to not be solely reliant on Russian gas and continue to feed money into the Russian bear,” Nunes said.
Despite that optimism, energy experts say that European companies would still be responsive to market forces when deciding where to purchase gas. And Russian gas supplied by pipeline is still the cheapest option for now.
