The Dominion Resources plan to export liquefied natural gas cleared a US environmental review, a key step toward final approval as supporters in Congress seek to expedite overseas shipments of the fuel.

The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval of Dominion’s proposed Cove Point project on Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay would have “no significant impact” on the environment, as long as proper measures are taken, the staff said in an environmental assessment.

The full commission is scheduled to issue a final decision on Cove Point by Aug. 13. Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass is the only US project to win approval from the FERC and Energy Department.

Dominion of Richmond, Virginia, is seeking to take advantage of a boom in US natural gas production, driven by advances in drilling techniques including hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Cove Point, which may cost as much as $3.8 billion to build, is scheduled to begin shipments in late 2017.

Advocates of natural-gas exports in Congress and the industry in recent months have seized on the potential for US supplies of the fuel to cut Europe’s reliance on Russia. Europe gets about 30% of its natural gas from Russia, which annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in March.

US facilities that plan to ship gas to nations without a free-trade agreement with the US need Energy Department approval in addition to passing the FERC-led environmental review. Cove Point has already won Energy Department approval. Most of the proposed projects won’t start exporting until 2017 or 2018, as the facilities take time to build.

Sempra Energy’s proposed Cameron LNG terminal cleared the FERC staff environmental review on April 30. Cameron and Sabine Pass are in Louisiana.

House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, are among lawmakers who have called for expedited approvals.

Dominion, which is modifying an existing import terminal about 62 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of Washington, DC, will liquefy the gas and provide export services from Cove Point. It won’t own the fuel.

The company has in place 20-year contracts with affiliates of Japan’s Sumitomo and Gail India of New Delhi. Neither Japan nor India have free-trade deals with the US.