Biden Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm makes fourth trip to Puerto Rico in five months
Gabe Kaminsky
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Energy Department Secretary Jennifer Granholm is under fire for making her fourth visit to Puerto Rico in five months.
The frequency of the trips has led to claims of hypocrisy from a former top Trump administration official, who said the visits are an example of the Biden White House‘s “rules for me versus rules for thee.”
“You can’t simultaneously have a world where the plebeians are expected to minimize their carbon footprint while you’ve got five jets to Puerto Rico in this span in the name of renewable energy, the official told the Washington Examiner.
“It’s totally possible to have a normal life of meetings without the travel to go do it.” Granholm has spent 10 workdays in Puerto Rico since February this year.
https://twitter.com/SecGranholm/status/1640881937307901952
President Joe Biden tapped Granholm in 2022 to head up his administration’s grid modernization initiative in Puerto Rico, which went dark for several months in 2017 following the Category 5 Hurricane Maria ripping through the island. The secretary landed there Monday and leaves Friday, aiming to help Puerto Rico transition to renewable energy.
Granholm’s trip includes touring a technical college, as well as meetings with a local homeowner, community solar project, and solar-backed businesses. She posted an image on Twitter on Tuesday of her visit with “members of the business community” to garner their input on the Energy Department’s various green energy programs.
During Granholm’s last Puerto Rico trip, in February, she “sat down with community members across the eastern region of Puerto Rico providing updates on the department’s urgent work to help repair and modernize Puerto Rico’s grid with clean and reliable power sources,” according to the Energy Department. She also met with leaders there to discuss the Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund, which Biden authorized in December 2022 and allocates $1 billion to “improve resilience for Puerto Rico’s electric grid.”
Her prior visits were in November and October of last year. Granholm’s March visit comes roughly one week after she claimed to Congress that replenishing the U.S. strategic oil reserves, an emergency petroleum stockpile maintained by the department, may take years. The Energy Department under Biden has sold reserve barrels to oil companies such as Shell, Valero, and Phillips in an attempt to lower gas prices.
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“This year, it will be difficult for us to take advantage of this low price,” Granholm told lawmakers on Thursday. “But we will continue to look for that low price into the future because we intend to be able to save the taxpayer dollars.”
The Energy Department did not return a request for comment.