U.S. Congressman Clay Higgins (R-LA), House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), and Congressman Pat Fallon (R-TX) sent a letter to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Secretary Jennifer Granholm requesting documents, communications, and a staff-level briefing to better understand the DOE’s role in executing a Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) export pause.

“The Committee is concerned with DOE’s move to update its public interest analysis of LNG export applications without adequate justification, in an apparent attempt to appease liberal advocacy groups determined to destroy our nation’s traditional energy sector,” the lawmakers wrote.

“The timing of the decision, in an election year, raises the likelihood that political motivations drove the action—as in President Biden’s misuse of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) before the 2022 midterm elections and cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office. Further, reports indicate the Biden Administration’s action was taken at the direction of leftist environmental groups and climate activists who seek a permanent stop to all use and exports of LNG,” the lawmakers continued. “The Biden Administration appears to be weaponizing DOE’s public interest analysis and the administrative state to prolong new LNG export project approvals at the behest of leftist environmental groups.”

Higgins recently co-sponsored and voted to pass H.R. 7176, the Unlocking our Domestic LNG Potential Act, which would reverse President Biden’s indefinite permitting pause on America’s LNG exports.