Europe is locking itself in to US LNG

I don't think the "EU" buys fuel. It's individual countries. The promise by the EU to buy LNG was empty. What country is going to buy it?

Germany, for instance. LNG terminals on the North Sea were built in record time.

Germany had an unpaid energy karma debt for stupidly decomm'ing their nuclear power for political reasons without a viable technical solution.

Russia might not have made the decision to invade Ukraine if Germany hadn't tied its energy needs so transparently to Russian natural gas.

And absent blowing up Nord Stream, might have hung Ukraine out to dry anyway.

So having to rapidly build LNG import terminals? Repaying that debt.

Nuclear Power is too expensive, the power plants too old, still to place for nuclear waste and the operators didn’t want to continue.