By Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden’s nominee for energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, faced questions on the administration’s push on clean energy, including competing with China on electric vehicles, at her Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
While governor of auto-manufacturing Michigan from 2003 to 2011, Granholm led a charge to secure $1.35 billion in federal funding for companies to produce electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries in the state.
Granholm, 61, who is expected to be confirmed by the Senate in days after the hearing, wants to steer the department to help the United States compete with China on EVs and green technologies like advanced batteries and solar and wind power.
“We can buy electric car batteries from Asia or we can make them in America,” Granholm told the senators in opening remarks. “We can install wind turbines from Denmark or we can make them in America,” she said.
Clean energy technologies could represent a $23 trillion global market by 2030, Granholm said, apparently citing a recent report by the International Finance Corporation.
She would be the second female U.S. energy secretary after Hazel O’Leary served in the Clinton administration in the 1990s.
Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, asked Granholm about opportunities for mining rare earth and other minerals that are used in advanced batteries, and wind and solar power. Granholm said “we can mine in a responsible way” and that she supports the industry for the jobs and energy security it offers.
Granholm could also face questions about the department’s Loan Programs Office, or LPO, founded with stimulus funding in 2009 during the Obama administration. The office has loaned money and been paid back by successful businesses, including Tesla Inc, but has been slammed by some Republicans for support of Solyndra, a failed solar company.
The LPO has more than $40 billion available for loans and loan guarantees for advanced technologies that went unused by the Trump administration. Nearly $18 billion can go to direct loans for green cars, which could spark Biden’s support for the industry, though the department would likely need Congress to approve more money to make sweeping changes.
Granholm will also likely be asked about other parts of the department’s mission including overseeing the 17 national labs, the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Energy secretaries traditionally promote the interests of the fossil fuels industry but with Biden’s promise to make curbing climate change one of the pillars of his administration, Granholm may focus less on oil and gas than her predecessors Dan Brouillette and Rick Perry.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Stephen Coates and Marguerita Choy)
