Not too long ago, on Nov. 8, 2011, Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev, German Chancellor Angel Merkel, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte participated in an inauguration ceremony for the first of two natural gas pipelines laid in the sea bottom from western Russia along the Baltic States to Germany.  You may have heard of this, known as Nord Stream I. This pipeline could deliver 27.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, equal to about 3.5% of the annual consumption of natural gas in the United States in 2016.  A second pipeline of the Nord Stream I system was laid and inaugurated less than a year later on Oct. 8, 2012, doubling the flow to Europe, through Germany.  Some readers may recall during a visit to the Nuclear Security Summit Meeting in Seoul, Korea on March 26, 2012, Presidents Obama and Medvedev met.  This is where the “hot mic” moment occurred.  Obama said,...(Read Full Article)