Italy will fast track the permitting process to set up a new regasification vessel aimed at expanding the country’s capacity to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) in an effort to cut its dependence on Russia, Rome told the European Commission. In a letter to the EU Commissioner for the Environment, Italy’s Ecological Transition Minister Roberto Cingolani said the project would be exempt from Rome’s environmental impact assessment, which can slow down significantly the construction of infrastructure projects. “Any delays or obstacles likely to prevent from timely implementation (of the regasification vessel) would be contrary to the interests of Italian citizens and would end up jeopardising the country’s energy security,” the minister said in the letter posted on the website of Italy’s special commissioner for […]