by Arsenio Toledo, DC Clothesline:

The United States probably sabotaged the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines to provoke Russia and make Europe more reliant on American natural gas exports.

On Tuesday, Sept. 27, explosions occurred in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. Following the explosions, gas began pouring out of three areas in the critical pipelines supplying Europe with Russian natural gas.

The extent of the leak is still unclear, but rough estimates suggest that between 200,000 to 400,000 metric tons of methane (220,000 to 440,000 tons) may have spilled out of the pipelines before gas flows were halted. French scientist Jean-Francois Gauthier noted that just 250,000 metric tons (275,000 tons) of methane is equivalent to the exhausts of 1.3 million cars driven on the road for a whole year.