Sen. Cramer Backs North Dakota Effort to Force Biden Administration to End its Moratorium and Allow Oil and Gas Leasing

Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)

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BISMARCK – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) issued the following statement today on North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem’s motion requesting the Biden Administration be ordered to immediately hold quarterly oil and gas lease sales for public lands, remedy the unlawfully canceled lease sales from March and June, and comply with a recent federal ruling which blocked the Administration’s moratorium:

“North Dakota is uniquely hurt by President Biden’s moratorium because our state and private minerals are intermingled with federal resources, thus hampering the development of all of them. Yet his Administration shows no interest in ending this harmful action which hurts workers, consumers, North Dakota’s economy, and America’s energy security, all amid rising unrest in the Middle East which was also caused by his Administration. Our Attorney General makes a compelling case for the moratorium to be overturned, and I hope his effort is successful.”

Senator Cramer applauded the lawsuit when it was filed in July. He denounced the Biden Administration’s moratorium during an energy roundtable held with the Deputy Secretary of the Interior, calling it “backwards logic” that “enriches our adversaries and competitors, harms American workers, and increases emissions by boosting the production of dirtier energy.”