Biden’s Former Energy Secretary Golden Parachutes Down to a Sweet Gig on Energy Company Board
Biden’s Energy Secretary, Jennifer Granholm, had many memorable moments during his administration.
Most notoriously, her advanced team claimed an EV charging spot while she was leading a caravan of electric cars to show off their utility and practicality. However, the act prevented a family with an infant from recharging their vehicle during a hot day in Georgia…so the family called the police.
Granholm was also a leading figure in Biden’s War on Appliances, targeting.
So, if a move is tone-deaf and self-serving, that is the direction Granholm will clearly go.
Now, after stepping down from her top spot in the Energy Department, Granholm is taking a board position at a leading energy firm that benefited from her policy choices. Nick Pope of the Daily Caller News Foundation gives this background.
Granholm will be a board member for Edison International, a major utility holding company, and she will also sit on the board for Southern California Edison (SCE), a subsidiary of the holding company, Edison International announced on Thursday. SCE was part of a group of California-based entities that received $600 million in taxpayer cash from Granholm’s Department of Energy (DOE) in August 2024.“Though they promised us something far different, the Biden administration revolving door looks to be still whirring fast enough to power a major city,” Michael Chamberlain, executive director of Protect the Public’s Trust, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Incidents of former powerful government officials cashing in on their government service by leaving to work for companies that had matters before the department while they were there is a major contributor to the precipitous decline in the public’s trust in government.”
By way of background, under Granholm’s leadership, a $600 million grant to improve California’s electricity grid and build clean energy projects faster was issued as part of the Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnership (GRIP) program. The recipients included SCE as a partner along with other agencies and utilities in California.
During Granholm’s tenure as Energy Secretary, another $26 million was given to groups working on spent nuclear fuel management solutions, including SCE’s SONGS facility.
Of course, Granholm’s biggest interest is Granholm. She faced criticism for violating the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act by failing to disclose stock sales within the required timeframe. She sold up to $240,000 in stocks but disclosed these transactions weeks or months late, incurring late fees.
At one point, Granholm falsely testified that she did not own individual stocks, later admitting this was incorrect. She and her husband owned stocks in several companies, including Ford Motor Company, which was sold after the discrepancy was revealed.
Early in her tenure, Granholm owned stock in Proterra Inc., an electric bus maker, which raised conflict-of-interest concerns given the administration’s focus on electric vehicles. She eventually sold her shares in May 2021.
What will Edison International get with Granholm? With the Department of Government Efficiency digging deep into locating waste and fraud, not as much as they hoped.
Under Trump’s Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, priorities are clearly different. Over $100 million in useless DEI contracts and needless media charity expenses have already been terminated.
Department of Energy press secretary and chief spokesperson Ben Dietderich exclusively told Fox News Digital that they have identified and canceled more than $124 million, “from millions of dollars of DEI contracts to ridiculously expensive multi-million-dollar Politico news subscriptions” and other nonessential line items.”And we are just getting started,” Dietderich said in a statement. “While some of the funds have already been obligated, we expect immediate savings of at least $65 million and more to come in the coming months and years. President Trump and Secretary Wright are fully committed to making government more accountable, efficient, and restoring proper stewardship of the American taxpayer’s dollars.””This [is] simply adding nothing of value to the American people,” DOE Secretary Chris Wright said in a Wednesday interview on “Varney & Co.”
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