Europe Needs Natural Gas And America Could Help—If We Could Get Out Of Our Own Way

Europe Needs Natural Gas And America Could Help—If We Could Get Out Of Our Own Way

DASHAVA, UKRAINE - SEPTEMBER 18: A worker explains the reading on a pressure guage on a valve at ... [+] the Dashava natural gas facility on September 18, 2014 in Dashava, Ukraine. The Dashava facility, which is both an underground storage site for natural gas and an important transit station along the natural gas pipelines linking Russia, Ukraine and eastern and western Europe, is operated by Ukrtransgaz, a subsidiary of Ukrainian energy company NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine. Ukraine recently began importing natural gas from Slovakia through Dashava as Ukraine struggles to cope with cuts in gas deliveries by Gazprom of Russia. As Russia has cut supplies many countries in Europe that rely heavily on Russian gas fear that Russia will increasingly use gas delivery cuts as a political weapon to counter European economic sanctions arising from Russian involvement in fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian armed forces in eastern Ukraine. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images) Last week, Russia began enforcing its demand that European Union (EU) countries pay for Russian natural gas in rubles. Poland and Bulgaria were the first countries to have their Russian gas supplies halted, but they may not be the last: The European Commission reiterated that