Testimony as Delivered by Secretary Granholm Before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

Thank you very much to the Chairman, Chairman Manchin, thank you for having me—and again, for that terrific visit to beautiful West Virginia earlier this month.

Ranking Member Barrasso, and to the Members of the Subcommittee, it is an honor to be here. It is an honor to serve as the nation’s 16th Secretary of Energy, and to join you in discussing the President’s 2022 discretionary budget for the Department.

I do want to start by thanking this committee for their leadership in the Energy Act of 2020. It was an amazing example of bipartisanship. It is the country’s first comprehensive energy-focused legislation, as the Chairman noted, since 2007.

And it really did lay out a roadmap for research, and development, and deployment of advanced nuclear technology, and carbon capture, and geothermal, and wind and solar and critical materials, and so much more.

And our budget request would allow us to make great progress in these areas. And I’m proud to report that we’ve actually already taken steps since January 20th.

So we have invested so far $1.5 billion to strengthen our national security and accelerate progress toward a net-zero economy.

Much of that has gone toward improving and deploying existing, market-ready energy solutions—such as our goals to cut solar in half yet again, and to add 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030.

But at the same time, we are supporting projects that can help us unlock game-changing breakthroughs, like our new Energy Earthshots Initiative.

This is going to be a series of ambitious, achievable targets aimed at commercializing emerging technologies, zero-carbon technologies, such as hydrogen. That’s the first Energy Earthshot, and it will take the cost of clean hydrogen to $1 per 1 kilogram in one decade. That’s the shot.

I’d also note today that we announced today a $12 million funding opportunity to advance direct air capture technologies, and later this week we’re going to be rolling out another significant investment around nuclear energy—both top priorities outlined in the budget proposal.

And of course, as was noted, the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline really highlighted the urgent need for greater investment in cybersecurity.

We’re really actively engaged with the private sector around strategies for hardening the critical infrastructure against these evolving 21st century threats. And we are working across agencies to address vulnerabilities and strengthen domestic supply chains—like for lithium batteries.

Should Congress make real the American Jobs Plan, we would be able to take much bigger steps even, in all of this work.

And in the meantime, our budget request would invest $46.2 billion in our key priorities.

And that includes a 65% increase in funding for our Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and a record $1.8 billion for our nuclear energy program.

And that, as a base, will help us to deploy clean and cheap power on a reliable and resilient grid.

And our budget is also going to enable our National Labs to expand their research in clean energy and carbon reduction while ushering in greater diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math fields.

So here, let me thank the Senate for passing the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, which authorizes the Department $17 billion in support of our efforts to keep the country competitive in a global economy.

So that funding, coupled with our budget request, is going to help the Department and our 17 National Labs put America at the forefront of clean energy innovation worldwide.

And, of course, the budget will also strengthen the Department’s nuclear security mission and our Environmental Management program.

We’ve also asked for one of the highest levels of annual funding for our Office of Environmental Management to facilitate continued progress on each of the 16 sites.

So all told, these investments will represent a down payment on a cleaner and more prosperous future, but truly would not be fulfilled without the American Jobs Plan—which would not only position the country to compete in the global clean energy market and confront the climate crisis, but would allow us to lift up our disadvantaged communities, Tribal Nations, other communities of color that have been historically burdened by pollution…

And it would help the Department in our ongoing work to provide fossil energy workers with real opportunities for good-paying jobs throughout the clean energy transition.

That’s what it would mean to Build Back Better.

I’m humbled by the opportunity to lead the Department of Energy in these times, at this moment, and with this Committee. And I’m happy to answer any questions you may have.