President-Elect Biden has chosen former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (bio here) to lead the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), CNN reported on Tuesday, December 15, 2020. Read story here.
DOE is responsible for all things nuclear — including nuclear weapons, production of nuclear reactors for the Navy, and nuclear waste disposal — as well as energy conservation; and is the largest federal provider of funding for research in physical sciences.
Granholm, a Harvard-educated lawyer, served as Michigan’s attorney general (1999-2003) and governor (2003-2011). She’s perhaps best known to the broad public for her energetic 2012 Democratic convention speech (video below). As Biden’s DOE secretary, she will play a major role in carring out his ambitious clean energy program.
She will replace Dan Brouilletee (bio here), a career bureaucrat with brief stints in private business (including at Ford Motor Co., where he was a vice president).