European nations are begging the United States to send them natural gas to blunt dependence on Russia, but a lack of infrastructure and market realities are calling into question America's ability to flex its new muscles as the world's leading energy power.
The crisis in Ukraine is deepening European alarm over reliance on Russian energy, a weapon that Russian President Vladimir Putin uses to wield economic and political power. Western nations have begun imposing minor sanctions on Russia but aren't hitting Putin where it really hurts, the energy trade, because Europe relies on Russia for some 30 percent of its natural gas and needs the energy.
