A lot of the Vitality Division's finances is dedicated to sustaining the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal, but it surely additionally operates the
A lot of the Vitality Division’s finances is dedicated to sustaining the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal, but it surely additionally operates the 17 nationwide labs which have helped develop superior know-how utilized in renewables, nuclear power and fossil gasoline manufacturing. Underneath former President Barack Obama, the Vitality Division oversaw tens of billions of {dollars} in mortgage ensures and grants that expanded the adoption of photo voltaic and wind energy, serving to drive a steep drop within the costs of renewable electrical energy. These achievements have been tarnished on the time by the scandal over Solyndra, a photo voltaic know-how firm that collapsed after taking greater than $500 million in federal funds.
DOE additionally will play a key position in decreasing emissions from the nation’s constructing, one other goal of Biden’s local weather plan. DOE has duty over setting equipment requirements, conducting analysis on improvements like electrical warmth pumps and overseeing constructing and residential power effectivity packages.
Granholm has sought to place herself as a determine who can assist U.S. trade transition to a clear power financial system, a course of that Biden has made one his high 4 targets.
“[T]he non-public sector wants better assist and political will from our policymakers to assist us totally notice the potential of a zero-carbon future,” Granholm wrote in a Nov. 7 op-ed in The Detroit Information. “The economics are clear: The time for a low-carbon restoration is now.”
If confirmed, Granholm — who defeated Trump Training Secretary Betsy DeVos’ husband to win her second time period as governor — can be solely the second girl to steer the division since its creation in 1977.
Granholm actively promoted herself to be thought-about for the job, individuals accustomed to the matter mentioned, utilizing her op-ed to point out how Biden’s clear power targets may match together with his need to assist rejuvenate the Rust Belt financial system. She was lengthy considered as more likely to win a slot in Hillary Clinton’s Cupboard had Clinton gained the 2016 election.
“She actually labored very arduous in 2016 to position herself as Vitality secretary with the Clinton crew,” mentioned Skip Pruss, who directed the Michigan Division of Vitality, Labor, and Financial Development below Granholm. “She’s actually a pupil of the [energy] transition. For those who have been to ask me what was a limitation in Michigan, I might say that she was barely forward of her time.”
She obtained the nod over a short-list of candidates that included former Vitality Secretary Ernest Moniz and DOE Undersecretary Arun Majumdar. Environmentalists pushed arduous towards Moniz, saying he was too near the fossil gasoline and nuclear industries.
Granholm’s Michigan connections to the auto trade and her means to win assist for a transition to electrified transportation can be central to Biden’s imaginative and prescient for the U.S. financial system and for the nation’s local weather change puzzle. Transportation is the biggest greenhouse fuel emitting sector within the U.S., so Biden’s quest to attain net-zero greenhouse fuel emissions by 2050 requires large-scale adoption of electrical vehicles, vehicles, buses, trains and planes.
“She will likely be phenomenal for DOE,” mentioned Dan Kammen, an power professor who has labored with Granholm on the College of California-Berkeley. “She understands the know-how, she understands deployment and she or he is aware of easy methods to run an enormous company.”
Ben Lefebvre contributed to this report.