House Republicans demand Energy Department answer about pausing gas exports

House Republicans on Monday announced a probe into the Energy Department's move to pause pending decisions on exports of Liquified Natural Gas to countries that are not part of a Free Trade Agreement with the United States. 

In a letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, the Republicans said they are concerned the agency made its decision "without adequate justification, in an apparent attempt to appease liberal advocacy groups determined to destroy our nation’s traditional energy sector."

House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky.; House Economic Growth,  Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs Committee Chairman Pat Fallon, R-Texas, and Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., all signed the letter. They voiced concerns that the decision may have been politically motivated. 

"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," the lawmakers wrote. 

The SPR had more than 638 million barrels when Biden entered office, but its current level is less than 362 million barrels after the White House placed hundreds of millions of barrels in the market to fight rising gas prices. 

In their letter, the congressmen asked Granholm to provide documents by April 1 about any communications between her agency, the White House and nongovernmental organizations about the decision to pause pending export decisions.

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