With the Ukraine-Russia conflict tightening, rebel armies trying to take control over Iraqi oil and Westerners being urged to leave Libya in a heightening conflict, demand for U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) could never be higher.

Since the start of the Ukraine crisis, U.S. policymakers have introduced more than six pieces of legislation in Congress to fast-track LNG exports (a list of some of the bills here) to non-FTA countries. At the core of the debate is not only question on whether to export LNG, but also to whom and whether certain exports serve "national interests." This has led to a number of bills aimed at shortening the time that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) would get to make so-called "national interest determinations."

The most recent bill was presented by Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), on July 24 and would give the DOE 45 days to decide on an export permit after an export project sponsor filed an application with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

"It is a concrete solution to help us provide energy to our friends and allies," Hoeven said in an interview with the Oil and Gas Journal. "It will weaken [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's energy leverage over Europe and encourage the European Union to stand with us on sanctions against Russia."

Just one month before, the House of Representatives voted 266-150 to approve legislation that would confine the decision period by the DOE for applications from members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to 30 days, once an environmental review by FERC has been completed. Introduced by Rep. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), this bill still has to be approved by the Senate. However, a previous version of the bill that failed would have tried to eliminate the need for DOE approval entirely, showing that the DOE cannot be left of the process.

Meanwhile, other bills in a similar effort are in the queue. The so-called Fight Russian Energy Exploitation (FREE) Act, introduced to the House of Representatives in March, would deem as "in the public interest" exporting gas to member states of the European Union or certain former Soviet states.

Less creative in name but similar in its spirit, the American Job Creation and Strategic Alliances LNG Act would allow an automatic approval of natural gas exports to WTO-member countries including the Ukraine, Japan and India.

As of now, the U.S. has free-trade agreements with 20 countries and export application approvals by the DOE can take up to several years. Just recently, the DOE proposed to change the application procedure for non-FTA members by dispensing with conditional approvals only if they have completed an environmental assessment.This would already have a considerable impact on the application time, according to a report by the Brookings Institute.