House Oversight Republicans Launch New Probe Into Biden Admin’s LNG Export Pause

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) speaks to the media as he leaves a House Republican caucus meeting where the conference voted on a speaker of house nominee in the Longworth House Office Building in Washington on Oct. 11, 2023. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Republican House Oversight and Accountability Committee members are investigating the Biden administration’s January order blocking certain new licenses to export liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and Reps. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) and Clay Higgins (R-La.) sent a letter to U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on March 18, pressing her for documents and communications about the export pause.

The Biden administration’s pause specifically blocks the approval of new export licenses between U.S. firms and recipients in non-Free Trade Agreement countries. President Joe Biden announced the LNG export pause on Jan. 26, citing concerns about a “climate crisis.” The president said his administration will work during the export pause to reevaluate the impacts of LNG exports on energy costs, energy security, and the environment.

In their March 18 letter, the Republican lawmakers said the LNG export pause appears to be an attempt by President Biden “to appease liberal advocacy groups determined to destroy our nation’s traditional energy sector.” The Republicans said the timing of this export pause in an election year “raises the likelihood that political motivations drove the action.”

Announcing the export pause in January, President Biden took the opportunity to specifically criticize “MAGA Republicans”—an apparent reference to supporters of former President Donald Trump and his “Make America Great Again” or MAGA agenda.

“While MAGA Republicans willfully deny the urgency of the climate crisis, condemning the American people to a dangerous future, my administration will not be complacent,’’ President Biden said at the time. “We will not cede to special interests. We will heed the calls of young people and frontline communities who are using their voices to demand action from those with the power to act.’’

The House Republicans argued that the Biden administration interpreted the Energy Department’s “public interest” authorities overly expansively to launch this pause and review period for LNG exports.

“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,” the Republican letter reads.

The House Republican letter calls for Ms. Granholm and the Energy Department to turn over all documents and communications with the White House about the LNG export pause by April 1. The letter also presses Ms. Granholm for internal Energy Department documents and communications about the pause, including communications with the department’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management and the department’s National Laboratories.

Another category of records sought by Oversight Committee Republicans are communications about the LNG export pause between the Energy Department and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and Maritime Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Republicans also requested all documents and communications between the Energy Department and nongovernmental organizations referring to or relating to the LNG export pause.

NTD News reached out to the Energy Department for comment about the records requests but did not receive a response by press time.

The House Oversight Committee is now the second Republican-led House committee to raise questions about the LNG export pause. In February, House Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) and 19 other Republicans sent their own letter to Ms. Granholm, raising several questions about her department’s involvement in the LNG export pause.

The House has already taken steps to reverse the Biden administration’s LNG export pause decision, passing a bill last month to reverse the policy. The bill passed virtually along party lines on Feb. 15, with nine House Democrats joining the 215 Republicans who voted to upend the LNG export pause. The bill has seen no additional progress in the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate.