U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Richard Burr, R-N.C., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, today sent a letter to the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, supporting the intelligence community’s ongoing assessment of the geopolitical impacts coming from the current domestic energy renaissance. Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Mark Kirk, R-Ill., also signed the letter.

“We agree that energy independence within North America and, perhaps, the Western Hemisphere is not only an attainable goal, but also increasingly the economic reality. As the Congress considers legislation to repeal restrictions on the export of domestic crude oil and expediting exports of liquefied natural gas, our nation is also exporting record volumes of other types of energy, including petroleum products, natural gas by pipeline, natural gas liquids, coal, and nuclear and renewable technology,” wrote the senators in the letter. “We are writing to strongly support analytical efforts by the intelligence community to assess the geopolitical and international security implications of our nation’s energy renaissance, and to ensure that policymakers are kept fully informed of this analysis.”

The letter cites a 2012 report from the National Intelligence Council suggesting that the United States “could emerge as a major energy exporter” by 2020. The report also describes energy independence as a potential “tectonic shift” between now and 2030.