The former Michigan governor has tried to turn the Department of Energy, flush with billions of dollars from energy and infrastructure legislation, into a catalyst for America’s clean energy future and new jobs. A s Secretary of Energy at a time when funding for clean energy in the U.S.
is at its highest ever, Jennifer Granholm has an unprecedented task: dole out upwards of $110 billion for greener, less carbon-intense forms of energy — as quickly as possible. If she gets it right, it will affect Americans for decades to come – and create tens of thousands of jobs. “Our motto is deploy, deploy, deploy,” Granholm told Forbes .
“That has not historically been the case. When I came in we reorganized a whole new vertical inside the department and hired almost a thousand people to execute on deploying clean energy. We've obviously been a great science and research agency and we shepherd the nuclear stockpile, but this issue of deploying has not historically been part of our DNA.
”. That urgency was inspired by the Biden Administration’s target of slashing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses to net zero by 2050. It’s an audacious goal, and one scientists say must be achieved on time, if not sooner, to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
To make it happen, Energy has tens of billions of dollars of new grants and loans to dole out resulting from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. It’s money that can be broadly .