The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee was scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to approve Jennifer Granhom’s nomination to be President Joe Biden’s first secretary of energy.
If the committee approves the nomination — and Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), still the chair, expressed great reservation about supporting the Biden administration energy and climate policies Granholm would carry out if confirmed — Granholm would still need a simple majority on the Senate floor to become the 16th Secretary of Energy.
The committee vote will take place during business meeting scheduled to stream online starting at 10:00 a.m. Eatern time on the committee’s website.
In her confirmation hearing last week, the former Michigan governor pledged to prioritize nuclear weapons and waste work at the Department of Energy, and to block development of Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a permanent repository for nuclear waste from civilian power plants and former nuclear weapon sites.
Granholm, like many nominees before her, said she would pay special attention to the Hanford Site in Washington state: the biggest nuclear-weapons cleanup in DOE’s portfolio, and a site of special interest for Energy and Natural resources member Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).
The committee did not really talk about nuclear weapons during Granholm’s confirmation hearing, despite the near-perennial issue of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons budget threatening to expand at the expense of the Manhattan Project and Cold War-cleanup projects managed by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management.
