Sixteen Republican-led states filed suit Thursday against the Biden administration’s high-profile decision to pause new natural gas export approvals, saying it will hurt their states’ economies.
The attorneys general, who signaled last month that legal action could be imminent, said the decision upends the U.S natural gas industry and harms communities that are relying on investment tied to liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. The United States became the world’s largest export of the supercooled gas last year.
“Instead of supporting clean energy production right here at home, the Biden administration is hijacking the global energy supply chain to the detriment of Louisiana, our nation, international stability and developing democracies abroad,” said Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill in a news release Thursday.
Led by Murrill, the states filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana against Biden and the Department of Energy, charging that the pause “disregards statutory mandates, flouts the normal regulatory process, upends the industry, disrupts plaintiffs’ economies, and subverts our constitutional structure.”
