>
Can anyone make economic sense of this mess ?No, because it's pure (geo-strategic) politics.

>
Now its common knowledge that the US want to restrict Russia economically and ship their own far more expensive gas to Europe but of course, this means that European consumers will have to pay a higher price for their energy, especially in the winter.That's (not) the one and only reason for all that hassle.
Germany gets it's gas since decades from Russia, even during CW I the Russians were always a reliable trading partner, especially for energy.
Even the "green" party "Die Grünen" who claims to be an environment protecting movement is now attacking North Stream 2.
Ministerette Baerbock is Young Global Leader and controlled by the US, as most of the nowdays politicians, not only in DE.
The US does not only want to isolate Russia from Europe, it also wants to isolate Europe from Russia. This would weaken the EU and make it more dependend from US.
It's not only about selling their fracking gas, this is just a side-effect (Win-Win-Win situation). Before CW II the North Stream 2 project was welcome by the EU politicians, especially by the Germans. (Otherwise it would never has been realized)