Europeans, Western and Eastern, depend on oil and natural gas for their lives. They have no real resource of fuel on the continent to ensure they stay warm in the winters.
Throughout history, Russia has been the dominant supplier of gas to Europe via pipeline. And Russian heads and oligarchs have often abused their market dominance.
When Russia tells European heads of state that policies are to be carried out in such and such way, the consequences of not complying can mean and have meant a cutoff of fuel in winter. Europeans hate Russians for doing this, the population is highly skeptical of anything the Russians offer.
When Russians have put the screws to Europe before, the Europeans have begged the US for help. The Europeans have begged the Saudis to build pipelines through Syria into Turkey up into Europe to bypass the Russian pipelines. This is why Syria and Turkey are targeted by Russians for market control. This is the center of the global security threat.
America has the most gas by far than any other place on Earth. Pipelines, LNG ports/ships supplying Europe and Asia, especially Korea, can create millions of long-lasting and high-paying jobs for Americans. This is where Trump is coming from. By setting up the infrastructure to compete with the Russians, breaking their grip on European markets, the US stabilizes Europe and decreases the likelihood of war. The Russians will be angry but they can do nothing about it.
Russian gas will be cheaper.
That’s fine. Let the free market work and get the stupid feds out of our way of finding and developing our massive petroleum and energy resources. But I hate meddling with another country’s sovereign right to do what they want as long as it is not a direct threat to the U.S. or our allies.
1. It means steady income for the Russians.
2. China could provide assistance building the pipeline from Siberian natural gas fields into China through Mongolia and through northeastern China. That means many thousands of Chinese could be employed in construction jobs building the natural gas infrastructure from Russia to China.
3. China could phase out the use of dirty coal-fired electric power plants in favor of vastly cleaner natural-gas fired electric power plants, and that could mean vastly lower air pollution and better health for its citizens.