West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is co-leading with Kansas, Indiana and Louisiana a coalition of 22 states in a letter, strongly urging President Joe Biden and the secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy to end the administration’s pause on exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
On Jan. 26, Biden announced his administration would pause new approvals of LNG exports.
“This administration is going full-throttle on its attack on America’s energy industry just to further Biden’s woke climate change agenda,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “The Energy Department has no such authority— authority on matters like this lies with Congress and Congress alone.”
International trade in LNG has spiked in part because of the abundant natural gas resources in the U.S.
The coalition pointed out the U.S. is the world leader in natural gas production and became the top exporter of LNG in 2023—exporting an unprecedented 86 million metric tons. There are also nearly 187 million Americans using natural gas, supporting more than four million jobs.
In the letter, the coalition, in part, wrote: “Beyond being unlawful, this ‘pause’ unnecessarily harms our economy. Our nation’s abundant supply of LNG insulates U.S. consumers from the increasing global energy instability while at the same time advancing U.S. national interests and ensuring the energy security for U.S. allies. … Cutting [those allies] off from American LNG will not decrease that need; it will force them to turn to other sources. Russia is more than ready to fill the void. Not long ago, you celebrated the delivery of American gas to Europe as a ‘key geopolitical weapon’ against Putin. Now, this pause effectively funds Russia’s war in Ukraine and its destabilization efforts in Europe and Asia.”
Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming joined the West Virginia-, Kansas-, Indiana- and Louisiana-led letter.
Original source can be found here.