President-elect Joe Biden will nominate former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) to be Secretary of Energy, media reported this week.
Granholm, who is deeply familiar with U.S. auto-making, will be a key ambassador to industry when Biden enlists the DOE’s help bolstering his agenda to fight climate change, outlets reported, citing people familiar with the Biden transition team’s discussions. Politico was first with the news.
If the Granholm pick is official, Biden will have bypassed a couple of former DOE leaders with deeper experience in the nuclear field: former secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and former deputy secretary Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall.
Moniz, a physicist, helped negotiate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or the Iran nuclear deal, and Sherwood-Randall has deep experience in national security and nuclear nonproliferation.
The Biden team had not officially announced the pick at deadline Friday for Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor. The Washington Post reported that Biden might pick Arun Majumdar, a materials scientist and first head of the Advanced Research Projects Agency: Energy under the Obama administration, as deputy secretary of energy.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), the chair of the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, praised the Granholm pick on Twitter this week.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm is exactly the kind of person we need at the helm of @ENERGY. She understands the importance of zero emissions manufacturing and has the skill to ensure the U.S. grows as a global leader in the renewable energy economy. https://t.co/aHyzaIJ3LS
— Marcy Kaptur (@RepMarcyKaptur) December 16, 2020
