A federal judge blocked the Biden administration’s freeze on new liquid natural gas export permits on Monday after 16 Republican attorneys general sued the administration over the policy.

U.S. District Judge James Cain ruled that the Biden administration had not followed precedent or considered national security impacts when it announced a ban on new natural gas permits earlier this year, issuing an injunction against the policy. Additionally, he ruled that the freeze would harm the states that sued after the policy was announced in January. 

The freeze meant that the Department of Energy would not issue any new permits while it updated the authorization process. According to the Biden administration, the freeze applied to countries that the United States did not have free trade agreements with, and “indefinitely” paused natural gas exports to those countries. 

“It appears that the DOE has failed to provide a more detailed justification for its halt of the approval process to conduct an update, especially considering that past precedent, which the applicants relied upon, allowed the approval of the applications to proceed when updates were made,” Cain wrote in his decision. 

“Also, it appears to this Court that Defendants did not realistically consider the cost/benefit analysis with regard to Plaintiff States’ concerns about the impact on national security, state revenues, employment opportunities, funding for schools and charities, and pollution allegedly caused by increased reliance on foreign energy sources,” the judge added. 

Cain’s injunction is in place as litigation against the freeze continues in federal court.

The states that sued were Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Cain said that the states, specifically Texas, West Virginia, and Louisiana, had shown that they would be harmed by the freeze, which would result in “loss of revenues, market share, and deprivation of a procedural right.”

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“This is a big win for the country’s energy industry and the millions of jobs it supports against the attacks from the Biden administration to further its radical climate change agenda at the expense of our economy,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said. “This administration’s Energy Department has no such authority to justify this ban— authority on matters like this lies with Congress and Congress alone.”

The White House disagreed with the judge’s ruling, and the Energy Department said it would assess it.

“We are disappointed in today’s ruling. We remain committed to informing our decisions with the best available economic and environmental analysis, underpinned by sound science,” White House spokesman Angelo Fernández Hernández said. “The United States remains the world’s largest exporter of LNG, and is currently on track to more than double existing capacity by the end of this decade.”