Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm is remaining in Washington, D.C., this week after canceling a trip to the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state due to tensions in Eastern Europe that on Thursday morning erupted into a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Given the uncertainty in global energy markets and the global security situation, out of an abundance of caution the Secretary will remain in DC this week,” a DOE spokesperson said via email Wednesday, the day before the full-fledged invasion.
Granholm was to make her first visit as secretary to the former plutonium production complex as well as the neighboring Pacific Northwest National Laboratory this Friday, according to local news coverage in the region. Last week Granholm and DOE Office of Environmental Management senior adviser William (Ike) White visited the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
But major international news accounts continued to report Russia appeared close to a full military invasion of its Eastern European neighbor, Ukraine.
A New York Times update Wednesday quoted a Pentagon official as saying an invasion could be “imminent” and that most of roughly 190,000 Russian troops and armed separatists are in combat-ready posts. Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered what he called “peacekeeping” Russian forces into two rebel-held areas of Eastern Ukraine. In the United States President Joe Biden called the action the start of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Biden administration and its European allies announced the first round of economic sanctions against Russia as a result, according to the Washington Post. Certain sanctions target the company constructing the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline to Germany from Russia. Also Germany blocked its certification of the pipeline because of Russian actions against Ukraine, according to Politico.
