Bangladesh, Jan. 22 -- Europe likes to talk about “strategic autonomy.” It features prominently in speeches, summit communiqués, and glossy EU Commission pamphlets. Yet beneath the rhetoric lies an uncomfortable reality: the European Union has never been more strategically dependent on the United States, particularly in energy. Far from escaping an abusive economic relationship with Washington, Brussels has locked itself into one that grows more lopsided by the year.

A recent report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) delivered an awkward dose of reality. According to its projections, the United States could supply as much as 80 percent of the EUs liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports by ...