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Senators Bob Menendez, the influential chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, and Jeanne Shaheen, who chairs the
panel's Europe subcommittee, asked Secretary of State Antony
Blinken to implement sanctions under existing laws.
"This pipeline must be stopped and your leadership is required
towards that end," they wrote in a letter.
"We do ... urge that the effort to build strong Nord Stream 2
sanctions packages be accelerated to meet the urgency of the
moment," they said, noting that the pipeline will be completed
this year if construction continues unimpeded.
The $11 billion project is about 94% complete and analysts say
it could be finished between June and September.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request
for comment.
Nord Stream 2, led by Russia state energy company Gazprom with
its Western partners, would take Russian gas to Germany under
the Baltic Sea.
The pipeline would bypass Ukraine, likely depriving it of
lucrative transit revenues and potentially undermining its
efforts to counter Russian aggression.
U.S. companies also want to sell Europe liquefied natural gas
(LNG) as an alternative to Russian gas, which is usually
cheaper.
Close ally Germany needs gas as it weans itself off nuclear and
coal.
Blinken said last week that any entities involved with the
project "should immediately abandon work." He will soon meet his
German counterpart, Heiko Maas, to discuss the project.
U.S. lawmakers criticized the State Department last month for
not sanctioning new companies building the project when it
issued a report to Congress. The next report is due in mid May,
though any new sanctions could come ahead of it.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; additional reporting by Timothy
Gardner; Editing by David Gregorio and Sonya Hepinstall)
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