Granholm: We Want Oil and Gas Companies ‘to Diversify’ to Produce Clean Energy

On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm stated that the Biden administration wants oil and gas companies to increase production now but also to “become diversified energy companies, to be able to produce other means of clean energy.”

Co-host John Berman asked, “Do you want five years from now, ten years from now, are you telling me you want them drilling for more oil, you want the refineries putting out more gasoline in five or ten years?”

Granholm answered, “What we’re saying is today, we need that supply increased. Of course, in five or ten years — actually, in the immediate, we are also pressing on the accelerator, if you will, to move toward clean energy so that we don’t have to be under the thumb of petro-dictators like Putin or at the whim of the volatility of fossil fuels. Ultimately, America will be most secure when we can rely upon our own clean domestic production of energy through solar, through wind –.”

Berman then cut in to ask, “But that’s the problem for these companies. These companies are saying. You’re asking me to do more now, invest more now, when in fact, five or ten years from now, we don’t think that demand will be there, and the administration doesn’t even necessarily want it to be there. Just one last question on Saudi Arabia, the president is going to Saudi Arabia, where we understand he will be meeting with the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Is there any kind of promise beforehand that the Saudis will increase production?”

Granholm responded, “No, there’s no promise beforehand. He’s — no, there’s not. And let me just say, John, we really want to see us move to clean energy, but we also need to see this increase right now, and we are asking the oil and gas companies as well to diversify and make sure that part of the — that they become diversified energy companies, to be able to produce other means of clean energy. Because they have huge deep pockets, they have a big ability to invest in the future, as well as investing right now so that we don’t see oil and gas causing the inflation numbers and people being hurt every day.”

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