Biden Energy secretary nominee Jennifer Granholm reassures Republicans on fossil fuels

President Biden’s nominee to be Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, assured Republicans during her confirmation hearing Wednesday that fossil fuels will play a role in the administration’s aggressive plans to reduce emissions to combat climate change.

“It is important as we develop fossil fuels we also develop the technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Granholm said.

Granholm was responding to a question by Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the incoming top Republican on the Energy Committee, who pressed her on a comment she made in private life saying she wanted to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

Granholm, a former Democratic governor of Michigan, is planning to focus the Energy Department on promoting the development of electric vehicles and other clean energy technologies such as wind turbines and batteries as a way to revive the U.S. manufacturing base and create new jobs.

“I believe that I was nominated by President Biden because I am obsessed with creating good paying jobs in America,” said Granholm, who worked with the Obama-Biden administration on the 2009 bailout of auto companies from the Great Recession.

But she sought to ensure that fossil fuels jobs won’t be harmed by the Biden administration’s policies, including its early moves to reject the Keystone XL oil pipeline and pause fossil fuel leases on public lands and waters.

“I’m thinking they have a SWAT team to take out jobs,” Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said of the Biden administration.

“I want to work with you to make sure people are employed,” Granholm replied.

The key to securing a future for fossil fuels, Granholm said, is accelerating investments in relatively nascent technologies that can capture carbon emitted from coal and gas plants and swipe carbon directly from the air.

“The use of technology allows us to ensure families they can still have a job,” Granholm said. “If we are going to get to where we need to be we cannot do it without coal oil or gas part of the mix.”

Granholm said Biden’s goal of reaching net-zero emissions across the economy by 2050 — meaning new emissions are balanced by measures to remove carbon from the atmosphere — can’t be reached without “carbon management solutions.”

She said she agreed with Barrasso’s contention that the U.S. being the largest oil and gas producer is a “good thing” for the country, and also committed she will abide by federal law as it relates to approving applications for exporting natural gas.