Building America’s Energy Future: A Conversation with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm


The global transportation system is going electric. What can the U.S. do to lead this transition?

U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm joined SAFE for an in-depth conversation on the energy transition, the United States’ need to lead this transition and its prospects for American jobs.

In her remarks, she noted the U.S. Department of Energy is prepared to spend billions of dollars to accelerate American competitiveness against rival nations – from ramping up the department’s loan program to scaling up electric vehicle investment, asking if we are prepared to get into battle, “or if we are going to bring a knife to a gunfight.”

The conversation with Secretary Granholm was held in conjunction with the release of SAFE’s latest report, The Commanding Heights of Global Transportation: Quantifying the Employment Effects. The nine policy proposals modeled—ranging from regulatory reform to tax incentives to new government investment in vehicles—would create 647,000 jobs.

Secretary Granholm noted during the event that these findings demonstrate that competing with China for leadership in tomorrow’s transportation technologies can be a significant net creator of jobs in the United States.

“The report that your team has pulled together is so valuable… thank you for doing the work to prove out the concept that energy policy means jobs—in this case, 647,000 of them,” she said, adding, “I so appreciate SAFE, because they are completely in line with what we want to do at the Department of Energy.”

SAFE’s Commanding Heights of Global Transportation plan proposes to invest in the technologies of the future—transportation, energy, and communications—to combat Beijing’s ambitions, ensure supply chain resilience, and protect and expand the U.S. manufacturing sector. This report is intended to complement the Commanding Heights strategic report with an economic assessment focused on the job impacts of various proposals.

Watch the event.