While Brussels is busy saving the planet, cleaning the oceans and trying to reinvent industry through ever more ambitious climate rules, Washington is doing something simpler: selling energy.
The U.S. is pushing American LNG deeper into the Balkans, while Brussels worries that new gas infrastructure could undermine its decarbonization ambitions.
And that is the irony.
The EU wants to be the knight in shining armor of global climate policy. America wants customers.
While Brussels debates emissions targets and the green transition, Washington treats energy as business, industry and geopolitics. The Balkans need reliable supplies, and U.S. companies see a market.
It is another illustration of what I consider the amateurism of EU energy policy: Europe focuses on saving the world, while others focus on securing markets.
Brussels may have the grander vision.
Washington may end up with the customers.