The Hill: Poles press Kerry on natural gas exports

Polish leaders used a visit from Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday to personally lobby for U.S. exports of natural gas.

Poland is a key U.S. ally and is already America's largest trading partner in central Europe. The country, which has long sought to diversify its energy imports to avoid an overreliance on Russian gas, is building a liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal in the Baltic port city of Świnoujście.

“Poland is one of the countries who think that for the sake of environment and for the sake of our economies in Europe and in Poland, we should explore and produce shale gas, and gas should flow to our [LNG] terminal also from the United States,” Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said during a joint press conference with Kerry.

The natural gas industry and other business groups are pressing the Energy Department to approve more applications to export natural gas to nations that lack formal free trade deals with the U.S. The department has approved several in recent months, but advocates of expanded exports want the trend to continue.  MORE