CHALMETTE, La. – Gov. Doug Burgum on June 3rd, joined 19 fellow Republican governors in sending a letter to President Biden urging his administration to unleash American energy and end the regulatory overreach that’s restricting domestic production. 

Burgum and six GOP governors announced the letter and outlined their concerns and requests of the Biden administration during a press conference at PBF Energy’s refinery in Chalmette, Louisiana. The letter was signed by the governors of Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

“As governors, we are extremely concerned with the impacts your energy policies are having on households across our country and call on you to pursue an all-of-the-above energy approach that will promote homegrown energy that benefits all Americans,” the letter states.

The governors called on Biden “to pause the rhetorical and regulatory hostility towards traditional energy and to include states as active participants in further rulemaking,” and to allow free markets to flow and adopt an all-of-the-above homegrown energy plan that includes traditional and renewable energy sources. For details of the plan, read the letter here.

During the press conference, Burgum said high energy prices affect all Americans, and the Biden administration’s current policies are pushing demand to U.S. adversaries instead of encouraging U.S. production which is cleaner, safer and more efficient than foreign sources.

“When we’ve got high gas prices, when we’ve got high electricity prices, that affects Republicans, Independents and Democrats. It affects everybody. Inflation and the cost of energy drives up the cost of food, and right now we’ve got so many Americans that are struggling to put gas in the tank and food on the table,” Burgum said. “When you try to shut down that (traditional energy) industry where innovation is thriving, you’re shoving the result of that, the demand, onto places like Russia and Iran and Venezuela, people that don’t even have an EPA.”

“It doesn’t help the environment. It hurts consumers. It hurts our allies,” Burgum added, noting that if not for overreaching federal regulations and burdensome red tape, record U.S. oil production would be even higher, which would lead to not only energy independence but energy dominance. “We’d be selling that to our allies instead of our allies having to buy from our enemies.”

In addition to Burgum, governors attending today’s press conference were Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. 

Video of the press conference is available online here.