On Monday, President Joe Biden’s Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm touted the passage of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package and what it would mean for the environment and the economy.
Granholm told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that when Biden “hears climate change, he thinks about jobs.” She emphasized the importance of the so-called “bipartisan” infrastructure bill for the United States to come out of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We are going to be expanding, for example, the electricity grid. And that grid is going to be adding what we hope is double the amount of renewable energy in order to meet the president’s goal,” Granholm outlined. “What does that mean? It means people have to go for work to be able to expand the grid, whether it’s an electrician. We need to build the solar panels and not just rely on China in supplying them. That means we’ve got to build those solar panels here. We’ve got to build the batteries for the electric vehicles, putting all these people to work. Mika, the clean energy sector is a $23 trillion sector by 2030. … And that means, for us, are we going to stand by and allow other countries to do it, or are we going to get in the game? This bipartisan infrastructure bill allows us to get in the game, to be able to build those products here, stamp them ‘Made in America,’ use them here, export them.”
She added, “We have a … supply that doesn’t meet demand. And that is an issue that we are going through. The president is all over this, both in the short term and in the long term. But the bottom line for when the president … when he hears climate change, he thinks about jobs. That is critical for our long-term strategy.”
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