Why does the author pull up Nord stream2 as important to the German economy considering there is no need for increased capacity only a Russian incentive to take

Why does the author pull up Nord stream2 as important to the German economy considering there is no need for increased capacity only a Russian incentive to take away the cards of Ukraine and such? Other than that the author makes a boatload of assumptions. South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Crimea, Nagarno karabakh, etc in recent memory but somehow he believes the Americans would not consider anything close based on this conjecture?