BISMARCK – North Dakota’s U.S. senators are speaking out after the Biden administration’s announcement Friday that pending decisions regarding exports of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) will be paused to “look at the impacts of LNG exports on energy costs, America’s energy security and our environment.”

Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-ND, joined 25 of his colleagues in a letter to President Joe Biden and U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, expressing deep concerns. According to the letter, without input from Congress, the plan could have significant economic, environmental and national security consequences.

“Without U.S. LNG exports, European leaders would have to decide between depriving their own citizens of energy or actively funding Russia’s war on Ukraine. Moreover, in December 2023, Russia exported LNG at record levels. Russia is also in the process of dramatically expanding its future LNG export capacity,” the senators wrote. “Now, Iran-backed forces have provoked a second war in the Middle East and are threatening shipping lanes through which LNG is shipped to Europe and Asia. At the same time, Iran is seeking to benefit from the war by ramping its own domestic LNG exports to displace the very supplies it helped to disrupt.”

Sen. John Hoeven also issued a statement on Friday.

“The Biden administration continues to handcuff U.S. energy producers with burdensome and unnecessary regulations, and this is just the latest example,” Hoeven said. “Instead of blocking new LNG exports, the U.S. should be providing this valuable energy commodity to our friends and allies, so they don’t have to rely on energy from our adversaries like Russia. Energy security is vital to our national security and the Biden administration is making our nation less safe with this unnecessary action. As a member of the Energy Committee, I intend to work to get Biden administration officials before our committee to push back on this latest addition to their flawed Green New Deal policy.”

“The Biden administration’s decision to halt new LNG export approvals, even temporarily, undermines the security of all citizens of the United States and our allies,” North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum said. “If President Biden truly cared about our economy and the global environment, he would want all energy produced in the United States, because we produce it cleaner, safer and more efficiently than other countries.”