A proposed change in way the US Department of Energy approves application for permission to export LNG will streamline the process by focusing on the projects that have the greatest chance of being built, a DOE official said in Houston Monday. “We need to be cognizant of market forces,” Christopher Smith, principal deputy assistant secretary for Fossil Energy, said in a presentation on the proposed changes at Rice University. DOE announced a proposal last month “to review applications and make final public interest determinations only after completion of the review required by environmental laws and regulations,” scrapping its previous practice of issuing conditional approvals at the outset of the approval process. Under the Natural Gas Act, the department is required to swiftly approve proposals to export LNG to countries with which the US has free trade agreements, but must determine if proposals to ship LNG to non-FTA countries are […]