Bluntly put, Jennifer Granholm is unqualified to be Energy secretary.
That is not a criticism of her accomplishments or intelligence.
She’s a smart woman and a savvy politician who not only won the governor’s mansion in Michigan twice but also convinced the Biden team to make her a cabinet secretary.
But Energy secretary is a serious job as energy is a serious issue. Everything needs energy. Think about it: the very first thing you did this day after you woke up needed energy: turn off the alarm, turn on the light, start the coffee, take a hot shower.
And the very last things you will do tonight will require energy. Lots of energy. If you are reading this on your phone at 3 am, that’s energy (and perhaps insomnia).
One cabinet person is dedicated to ensuring our national energy is abundant, reliable, and inexpensive. Secretary Granholm is clearly not that person.
Two recent remarks make this clear. At the international climate change conference in Glasgow, she was asked about her plan to increase oil production.
She laughed. Head thrown back in fits of laughter like a cartoon character. “Would that I had a magic wand…” she chuckled, excusing her lack of vision and leadership. She claimed energy is a “global” problem controlled by forces greater than her. She’s merely a bystander.
How thoroughly un-American. Surely, we are back to the Jimmy Carter age of cowering before the OPEC cartel imploring them to increase production and ease our pain. Jennifer Granholm’s attitude says it’s not her problem to solve because it’s not her fault.
What is the point of government leaders?
When pushed on what can we do to increase supply and lower prices, her response pinned the tail on another donkey: oil companies.
“The oil and gas companies are not flipping the switch as much as the demand requires.” I wonder if this is a euphemism or a literal proclamation. I fear the latter.
The Energy secretary, a politician with zero energy experience, believes there is some on/off switch, or, like a faucet, a way to increase the output by turning a giant handle.
Neither Granholm nor the TV host has a background in energy, so the discussion ended there. In total ignorance.
No surprise Granholm is blithely unaware of how energy is produced as she has a great disdain for it. Why else record a music video singing about the end of the oil and gas companies (her entrance begins at the 1:22 timestamp).
Funny how that video didn’t surface before her confirmation. We could all imagine the uproar of an HHS secretary nominee singing about the end of Medicare or a Labor secretary nominee singing about Union busting, but fossil fuels are one of those areas where it’s totally acceptable to demonize and scapegoat.
That’s a really big problem because fossil fuels supply over 80% of our energy and are simply irreplaceable at scale.
The result of the cumulative actions Joe Biden has taken which the Energy secretary doesn’t comprehend took a few months to arrive, but arrive they have.
These policies have made energy very expensive, and since everything needs energy, everything else has become more expensive. Like the sinking of the Titanic, it’s a mathematical certainty.
This is where Granholm, the one person responsible for the nation’s energy, is just unqualified to hold the position.
Yes, the president is in charge, but how often have we seen generals and diplomats push back on military and foreign policy decisions because they, in their expertise, know more than the president. This is the role of the cabinet.
That Jennifer Granholm doesn’t understand or even acknowledge the cause-and-effect sequence of the Biden Administration’s energy policies disqualifies her from her current role.
We don’t need an Energy secretary to think lofty thoughts and deliver eloquent speeches. We need a leader with vision and grit who is determined to tackle any challenges without fear or excuses, without blaming global powers or fearing the might of OPEC, and without hawking the magic hair growth tonic of green energy.
Jennifer Granholm and Joe Biden are politicians, and that’s why we are in this energy crisis. Power is acutely concentrated in Washington DC, and the ruling class is a bunch of career empty suits who think having the luck to win an election is tantamount to governing a country.
We cannot sloganeer our way out of this. We cannot focus group or poll ourselves into energy independence. And if career politician Jennifer Granholm is incapable of leading America out of this crisis, then she should step aside and let someone else be in charge.
Read more at RealClearEnergy
“She’s a smart woman…”
On what basis?
Like most all Liberal Democrats Biden selects the most farleft persons he can find to fill up his Rougues Gallery