Richard Grenell criticized the German government for supporting the gas link, which Warsaw and Washington have both strongly opposed amid concerns that the pipeline will make the European Union more dependent on Russian gas.
Wednesday’s issue of the German Handelsblatt daily quoted Grenell as saying that Germany must stop “feeding the beast” while at the same time not paying enough into NATO.
The 1,200-plus-kilometre Nord Stream 2 link under the Baltic Sea is expected to have the capacity to send around 55 billion cubic metres of Russian natural gas a year directly to Germany, while bypassing the Baltic states, Poland and Ukraine.
Handelsblatt reported that it was not clear what form the new US sanctions would take.
It said that penalties could be slapped on companies involved in the pipeline project and using specialized equipment, adding that Washington was also mulling sanctions for buyers of Russian gas.
The US Senate late last year approved a massive defence policy bill that included a measure to punish companies involved in work to build the pipeline.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has called Nord Stream 2 “a new hybrid weapon” aimed at the EU and NATO.
(pk)