The U.S. Senate on Feb. 25 voted 64 to 35 to confirm Jennifer Granholm as secretary of energy. Granholm, a former two-term governor of Michigan, was sworn in later that day. She is the second woman to lead the DOE.

 “I am humbled by the faith President Biden has placed in me to lead this incredible team at the Department of Energy,” Granholm said. “DOE is powered by brilliant scientists, engineers, and energy policy experts who are the very best for the job we’ve been tasked with: to develop and deploy new clean energy technologies that will achieve the Administration’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and secure our nation’s future. I am so ready to work alongside them as we kickstart America’s clean energy revolution, create millions of good-paying union jobs, and deliver benefits to American workers and communities across the nation.”

Granholm, an immigrant from Canada, began her career in public service as a judicial clerk for Michigan's 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. She became a federal prosecutor in Detroit in 1990, and in 1994, she was appointed Wayne County Corporation Counsel. She was later elected attorney general of Michigan.

After two terms as governor, Granholm joined the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley as a distinguished professor of practice in the Goldman School of Public Policy, focusing on the intersection of law, clean energy, manufacturing, policy, and industry. She also served as an advisor to the Clean Energy Program of the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The Carbon Capture Coalition has spoken out to congratulate Granholm on her confirmation. “We look forward to working with Secretary Granholm and the Biden administration on carbon capture, removal, transport, utilization and storage policies and welcome her engagement from day one on this bipartisan climate, jobs, clean energy and industrial opportunity,” said Brad Crabtree, director of the CCC. “We are encouraged by Secretary Granholm’s positive comments about carbon capture in her Senate confirmation hearing and by the broad bipartisan support from the Biden administration and new Congress.”