Biden Looks To Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm as Energy Secretary

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is expected to pick former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm as energy secretary.

Granholm, 61, served as Michigan's attorney general from 1999 to 2003 and two terms as Michigan's first female governor, from 2003 to 2010. She was a supporter of Biden's presidential bid and has spoken out against President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the election results, accusing him of "poisoning democracy."

Her intended nomination was confirmed by two people who were familiar with her selection. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly before the president-elect's announcement.

As energy secretary, she will have a role in executing Biden's promised $2 trillion climate plan, billed as the nation's broadest and most ambitious effort to cut fossil fuel emissions that are dangerously warming Earth's atmosphere.

Biden's plan includes overhauling the nation's transportation and power sectors and buildings to eliminate fossil fuel emissions by 2050. Biden says he will return the United States to the Paris climate accord as a first step after President Donald Trump yanked the country out of the global climate effort.

As governor, when Granholm faced an economic downturn before the Great Recession struck, she sought to diversify the state that is home to the Detroit Three automakers by emphasizing the growing "green economy." The state pushed incentives to manufacture wind turbines, solar panels, advanced batteries and electric vehicles, and she signed a law requiring that more of Michigan's energy come from renewable sources.

After leaving office, she moved to California to teach at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a political contributor on CNN.

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