Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm talks Biden 2024 exit, electric vehicles: 4 takeaways

WASHINGTON - America’s national security interests are tied to investments in renewable energy , including solar and wind power , Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told USA TODAY on Monday in an exclusive interview.

Granholm added in her visit to USA TODAY's Washington bureau that it's “critical from a national security perspective” for the U.S. invest in “homegrown” energy so it is less reliant on oil-rich countries to meet its needs.

“We have to hopefully rely upon, in a greater and greater fashion, energy that does not come from a global market, but that comes from places like the sun, like the wind, like the Earth, where we have control over it and the technology,” said Granholm, a former Michigan governor who has been serving in the Biden administration since February 2021 .

In the same way that Russian President Vladimir Putin has tried weaponizing energy in his war against Ukraine, Granholm argued that democratic countries should not rely on OPEC countries for oil and China for electric vehicle batteries.

“We must have our own supply of the full supply chain, otherwise we are subject to relying on countries whose values we don't share. All of that makes us secure,” she said.

The Cabinet secretary also gave her reaction to President Joe Biden ending his 2024 reelection bid , spoke about the challenges women still face running for office and talked about the future of electric vehicles and more.

Here are our top takeaways.

Cabinet called about Biden's decision

Granholm said she wasn’t surprised when Biden exited the 2024 race .

She was at home that Sunday afternoon when she and other Cabinet members received a call from White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients informing them that Biden was dropping his bid.

The call came almost simultaneously to the release of his public letter, Granholm said.

“There had been so much talk about this,” she reflected. So by that point there was “sort of an inexorable pull toward that conclusion, because it had been the subject of headlines for weeks.”

“But it was a sad moment,” she said of the announcement.

An all-female presidential ticket

Granhom declined to talk about the 2024 presidential election and Vice President Kamala Harris’ selection of a running mate in her capacity as energy secretary.

But the former Michigan governor said of the potential for an all-female presidential ticket: “I love women running things, so I'm all about it.”

Granholm was the first female governor of her state, serving from New Year's Day 2003 through the first day of 2011. She was Michigan’s first female attorney general, too.

Since that time, more and more women have been elected to office, she said, and so people have become used to seeing them in those roles.

“But now, I think – I hope – that it's becoming boring that a woman ascends to a leadership position, and that breaking a glass ceiling is like, you know, throwing a rock through your sunroof,” she said. “It should be dull, and we're not quite there yet.”

Electric vehicles a 2024 election focus

While the 2024 race has mostly centered around the economy, the southern U.S. border and abortion access, another issue has been sparking attention as November draws closer: electric vehicles.

Former President Donald Trump and Harris have crisscrossed the country talking about electric options for Americans.

Granholm said that “up until this point, China has cornered the market” on some components of electric vehicles, including batteries.  “And we have just sat by and allowed that to happen.”

Sales have started to slow for some new EVs, but the market for used electric vehicles has expanded.

The Biden administration has been working to bring the supply chain home through manufacturing, Granholm said, and create the infrastructure for Americans to feel comfortable buying electric vehicles.

“We're going to have thousands of electric vehicle charging stations in the states in the hardest places (to reach),” Granholm said.

Trump has mocked electric vehicles, arguing that they can’t take drivers far enough and vowing to scrap the Biden administration’s EV policies if he’s elected to a second term in office. Harris has touted that very work and called EVs the future of transportation. She shared on X last year that a top goal remains that “by 2030, at least half of the cars sold in the U.S. are electric.”

“People, of course, can still drive their internal combustion engine vehicles. They can still fill up at the gas station,” Granholm told USA TODAY. “But now they'll be able to charge at gas stations and Walmarts and other places all across the country, too, for much less monthly cost on your pocketbook,” she said.

Liquified natural gas study coming by year's end

The Biden administration in January put a temporary halt on new approvals for liquefied natural gas exports.

It said at the time that it would be assessing the impacts of pollution from LNG on communities and the global climate. It did not say how long the review would take.

The decision was ridiculed at the time by Republicans, who argued it was an election-year giveaway to environmentalists. Democrats largely supported the measure.

A federal judge in Louisiana blocked the pause at the beginning of July after a group of Republican attorneys general sued the Biden administration.

Granholm said the administration has continued to study the issue and will release a draft of its findings before the end of the year. The release of the report will set off a public comment period on the study, which she said the Department of Energy plans to use as guidance for how it authorizes future approvals of LNG.

Left unsaid was that with Biden leaving office on Jan. 20, and Harris locked in a tight race against Trump, the study could be shelved depending on which party wins the White House.

Contributing: Marina Pitofsky, Romi Ruiz, Elizabeth Weise

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm talks Biden 2024 exit, electric vehicles: 4 takeaways