ASTORIA (AP) — Oregon Attorney General John Kroger says it is a mistake for the state to rely on imported natural gas as it tries to become more energy independent.

Kroger says Oregon should use domestic natural gas rather than buying it from foreign countries such as Russia and Iran.

“For the last 40 years our country has been entirely reliant on imported fossil fuels from other countries, and that has had a very bad impact on our economy and our foreign policy,” he said in an interview Wednesday with The Daily Astorian.

Kroger is leading a state appeal of a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission decision to approve a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal on the Columbia River near Astoria at Bradwood Landing.

Kroger said he hopes the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will overturn the project approval and require FERC to wait for all state permits and environmental reviews to be complete before voting again on a federal LNG license.

“We believe the federal government has violated the law by granting a permit for a facility to proceed without going through the state permitting process,” he said.

Kroger told the Astoria newspaper that liquefied natural gas is just one of many issues on his agenda as he begins his term this year.

His top priorities are taking down drug traffickers, illegal polluters and consumer scammers, and he’ll be asking the state Legislature this session for support on all those fronts — especially in the battle against methamphetamine and predatory mortgage lenders.

But Kroger has been hailed by liquefied natural gas opponents on the northern Oregon coast for his stance on imported LNG, which he says is the wrong energy source for the country and the state.

“The question I think we have throughout the country, not just Oregon but everyone, is whether we want to continue to rely on imported fossil fuels or whether we want to have an independent economy fueled by our own energy sources,” Kroger said.