NORTHAM: The U.S. could limit its sanctions to Russian companies or businessmen. Some have even suggested the U.S. could convince German Chancellor Angela Merkel to abandon the entire project. That's highly unlikely, says Kristine Berzina with the German Marshall Fund.

KRISTINE BERZINA: Nothing has made Germany, the chancellor, steer away from this pipeline.

NORTHAM: Berzina says Merkel and other German leaders need the gas pipeline to help the country wean itself off coal and nuclear energy.

BERZINA: Germany, I think, has seen the fact that it has weathered such storms in the past, still has maintained many years of good ties to the States and, somehow, it will maneuver through this situation.

NORTHAM: Pipeline or no pipeline, Berzina says, energy politics won't kill the U.S.-German relationship.