The U.S. Senate confirmed today that Jennifer Granholm, former Michigan governor, is the new Energy Secretary; leading the Joe Biden’s administration plans to shift the country towards energy transition and the decarbonization of its economy.
Firstly, on her tweeter account, Vice President Kamala Harris shared that she had sworn on Granholm as the new secretary of Energy; and her new commitment to create good-paying jobs for American people, and to address the climate change crisis.
Secondly, through the Department of Energy, the new secretary shared a message: “Climate change is intensifying and ravaging our communities and our planet. Also, more intense hurricanes and storms. And it’s costing us billions and billions to clean up the mess these catastrophes leave behind each year.”
“At the Department of Energy, we have the solutions to tackle our climate emergency and to create healthy, safe, and thriving communities. We have the tools to put America on an irreversible path to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050,” she said.
Senators confirmed her as the new energy secretary with 64-35 votes. However, she did face some political opposition from republican senators. In fact, former energy secretary, Rick Perry, had 62-37 votes; and senator John Barrasso, from Wyoming, said: “workers livelihoods are being sacrificed in the name of the Biden agenda.”
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Granholm, first woman to serve as Michigan’s governor
On the other hand, job creation has been a major subject in Biden’s energy agenda, in this regard, during the vote, Granholm said. “The president’s plan of building back better…would create more jobs in clean energy than the jobs that might be sacrificed. But I will also say this: We don’t want to see any jobs sacrificed.”
“This is something we’re going to have to work on together to make sure that people remain employed,” she concluded.
As we reported previously, Jennifer Granholm was the first woman to serve as Michigan’s governor (2003-2007), for the Democratic Party.
Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, she moved by the age of four to California; where she attended school, and also graduated at University of California in Berkeley as bachelor in arts; and then, as a Juris Doctor in Harvard Law School.
