Granholm: Biden Only Approved Willow Project Because He Had to, ‘Everything Else’ ‘Is Accelerating the Push to Clean’

During an interview aired on Wednesday’s edition of MSNBC’s “11th Hour,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm stated that President Joe Biden only approved the Willow Project due to a need to resolve litigation, but “everything else you see this administration doing is accelerating the push to clean.”

Host Stephanie Ruhle asked, “It’s clear that the goal is to move to clean energy, but at the same time, the President just approved an eight-billion dollar drilling program in Alaska. How do you balance the two?”

Granholm responded, “That was the result of litigation that had to be resolved. Ultimately, though, everything else you see this administration doing is accelerating the push to clean. And note that we are in a transition, so you can’t just flip a switch and go from a fossil fuel energy country to a renewable energy country. That’s just not possible, because the technology is not ready, the infrastructure is not ready. So, it’s a transition. That’s why the goal is to get to a net-zero carbon-emitting economy by 2050. It’s — that’s still years ahead. We have to have this be a smart, managed transition. We know gasoline is going to be around for a good number of years in the future. So, we have to produce that, and we don’t want to choke off supplies so that price goes up either. So, it’s managing the current situation so that people’s prices are not going high by using fossil fuels, but also really accelerating this push to clean, which, ultimately, is cheaper and cleaner and more secure.”

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