The US already sells all of the LNG to Europe that either side has the capacity to handle. It will be faster to repair the pipe than build out new LNG capacity.

The US already sells all of the LNG to Europe that either side has the capacity to handle. It will be faster to repair the pipe than build out new LNG capacity. I don’t see how the US has anything to benefit from blowing up the pipe to inflate energy prices in Europe as it’s a significant drag on the global economy which has far broader impacts on the US economy than slowly and incrementally increasing LNG shipments would. Furthermore Russia already has 1 pipe “down for maintenance,” so clearly limiting capacity is a huge bargaining chip for them. I think it’s also worth considering Russia may have internal detractors from their current policies and blowing up a pipe removes it from the equation. It may have even been a warning to those internal detractors: “don’t speak up or we can take all the pipes off the table as bargaining chips.” Russia benefits from the pipes being a high stakes game far more than the US. But who knows. The CIA has done dumber things. I just don’t see the incentives for the US especially considering even if we could ship more LNG (it would take years) that would increase energy costs here. The Biden administration has to LOVE being isolated from the madness of Europes gas market at the moment, especially considering the elections and looming winter.