US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that natural gas produced in Russia is allegedly the “dirtiest” in the world. She made such a statement during a hearing in the House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Over the issue of sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, she said that she opposes this project. The head of the Ministry of Energy said that the United States considers the gas pipeline “very dangerous”. “This is that it transports the dirtiest natural gas on earth without any methane emissions safety. This is bad for our climate,”she said.
Nord Stream 2 envisages the construction of two strings of a gas pipeline with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year from the Russian coast through the Baltic Sea to Germany. The project is actively opposed by the United States, which is promoting its liquefied natural gas to the EU, as well as Ukraine and a number of European countries.
During 2020, a European start-up Kayrros’s satellite imagery detected higher amount of methane emissions on the Russian gas infrastructure when compared to the international standards. The EU is the world’s largest importer of natural gas. The methane emissions related to Europe’s consumption of oil and gas are in question as it is the continent’s third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. The Russian gas is expected to make the matters worse.
Earlier, the POTUS Joe Biden admitted that sanctions against Nord Stream 2 are currently counterproductive, since the project is close to completion.
Unfazed by the US sanctions, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government Alexander Novak said that Nord Stream 2 will be completed, work on this continues.