The incoming Trump administration and Republicans in Congress would commit “political malpractice” by cutting funding for clean-energy projects coming to conservative parts of the country, outgoing Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told Newsweek in an exclusive interview as she prepares to leave office.
Republicans would be wise to leave the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act in place because roughly 85 percent of the climate law’s funding for clean energy projects and the jobs that go with it is slated for Trump-voting districts in coming years, Granholm said.
“It’s the Trump administration who will be in office when all of this hiring occurs. So it would be political malpractice to undo all of these investments,” she said.
Republicans opposed the Inflation Reduction Act, which Democrats passed on a party-line vote, and President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to roll back much of President Joe Biden’s energy and climate legacy.
Granholm argued that Biden’s policies helped make the United States a leader in clean energy and better positioned the country to compete with China and other rivals on critical issues like electric-vehicle manufacturing.
Photo by Pierre Kattar for Newsweek
Tesla founder and billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk said last month that he supports ending tax credits for electric vehicles, known as EVs. Trump has often criticized what he calls Biden’s “EV mandate,” and his transition team is reportedly planning to cut the tax credits for electric cars included in the 2022 climate law.
Granholm said that eliminating the subsidies would hurt domestic production and help Chinese automakers seeking to make inroads into the American EV market.
“Are we going to compete with China, or are we going to allow China to have this?” Granholm said.
In the broad-ranging interview with Newsweek — her last interview as energy secretary before stepping down when Trump assumes office on Monday — Granholm defended the administration’s record while pushing back against critics who say Biden fell short of his pledge to fast-track the economy’s transition away from fossil fuels.
Speaking at the Department of Energy’s headquarters in Washington, Granholm pointed to the uptick in green jobs connected to renewable energy generation since Biden took office.
“These are future facing jobs,” Granholm said. “For communities that have powered our nation for the past 100 years, this is an opportunity for them to power our nation for the next 100 years. But in clean energy.”
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Under Biden, the economy created more than 400,000 new clean energy jobs. Last year alone the U.S. added enough new clean power to the electric grid to match the power output of nearly 30 Hoover Dams, Granholm said.
Still, the nation produced more climate-warming oil and gas during Biden’s presidency than it did during Trump’s first term in office. America is now the world’s leading producer of crude oil and largest exporter of liquified natural gas, or LNG, according to Energy Information Administration data.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 also underscored the world’s continued reliance on fossil fuels. Biden was forced to balance his climate plans with policies aimed at shoring up Europe’s oil and gas supply, all while facing pressure to lower the price of gasoline for U.S. consumers.
Outside environmental groups have criticized the fossil fuel boom on Biden’s watch. The issue also caused political problems for Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, helping contribute to a drop in support from climate activists and progressive voters in the 2024 election.
In the Newsweek interview, Granholm said the administration made progress in meeting Biden’s goals to lower domestic greenhouse gas emissions. She also noted that under Biden the United States re-joined its allies in the fight to lower global emissions.
Biden brought the U.S. back into the 2015 Paris Accords on his first day in office. Trump has signaled plans to withdraw the U.S. from the international climate treaty, a move he already made once at the end of his first term in the White House.
Granholm said she told her counterparts at a meeting of world energy ministers after the election to continue tackling climate change, regardless of any potential shifts in policy by the Trump administration.
“It is a crisis and we need people to act as though it’s a crisis,” Granholm said of the warming climate. “And so our allies need to step up, even though the White House [under Trump] may be taking a back step.”
Granholm also touched on Biden’s controversial decision last year to place a temporary pause on new LNG export licenses so the Energy Department could study the impacts on emissions. The move sparked a legal battle, and Trump has said he plans to reverse the decision.
“LNG and natural gas are likely to be part of this mix for a long time. But the question is, can you reduce greenhouse gas emissions as a result?” Granholm said.
On Puerto Rico, Granholm urged the next administration to continue the efforts underway to rebuild the territory’s damaged power grid. Granholm made several trips to Puerto Rico as energy secretary to highlight the work, including a visit this month following an island-wide blackout around New Year’s Eve.
The former Michigan governor, Biden and Harris campaign surrogate — and vocal Trump critic — declined to discuss partisan politics in her official capacity as a sitting Cabinet secretary.
“I hope that there are lessons learned,” Granholm said, in response to a question about Trump’s return to power, before pivoting back to her policy portfolio. “I’m hopeful that no matter who is in the White House,” Granholm added, the push for “an economy powered by clean energy will continue.”
