FT: US gas push wins eastern Europe praise

Eastern European governments have praised US lawmakers for advancing efforts to expedite American natural gas exports, as action by Russia forces European gas users to look for alternative supplies.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill that would give the US energy department no more than 30 days from the completion of an environmental review to decide whether to approve applications for liquefied natural gas export terminals.

A long-running debate on exporting LNG from the US’s shale energy revolution has been fuelled by the Ukraine crisis, which has left the US’s European allies anxious about their dependence on Russian gas.

The bill that passed the House was not as bold as some previous versions, which would have automatically approved all existing multi-billion dollar export terminals or all LNG exports to members of Nato. There are 25 pending export applications.
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