Energy Secretary Granholm’s Trips to Puerto Rico Spark GOP Demands for Justification

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm briefs reporters at the White House on May 11, 2021. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairman Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) are demanding documents regarding Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm’s four taxpayer-funded trips in five months to Puerto Rico.

“The frequency and duration of these trips raise concerns regarding your attention to your other duties, particularly in light of climbing energy costs and intensifying threats to the United States’ energy independence,” McMorris Rodgers and Griffith told Granholm in an April 24 letter.

“We understand the importance of stabilizing and modernizing Puerto Rico’s electric grid but question whether your frequent and extended presence is critical to these activities.

“In addition to two trips to Puerto Rico in the fall of 2022, you recently made two week-long trips to Puerto Rico in February and March of this year.

“In 2022, in addition to numerous domestic trips, you traveled to France, Australia, Mexico, and Singapore. Additionally, you seemingly prioritized visits to these international locations before finally visiting the Hanford [Washington state] site, one of the most costly and challenging cleanup sites in your agency’s Office of Environmental Management complex.”

Puerto Rico’s electrical infrastructure was destroyed during a 2017 hurricane that severely damaged much of the U.S. island territory. Granholm has made rebuilding the island’s power infrastructure a top priority and, in the process, converting it to solar-generated electricity from dependence on fossil fuels such as natural gas.

McMorris Rodgers and Griffith also pointed to a recent news report in The Washington Free Beacon that cited an unnamed former Department of Energy (DOE) official, who said, “This trip will easily cost the taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars between the advance teams, security, support staff, and more.”

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, speaks during the hearing with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in Washington on March 23, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The former DOE official added that “we are in the middle of a domestic and global energy crisis, and under her watch, the American people are paying the price for this administration’s failed energy policies. Unless Granholm is there installing the solar panels herself, there is no reason for her to be on the ground for that long.”

McMorris Rodgers and Griffth requested copies of all documents related to Granholm’s multiple trips to Puerto Rico and other overseas locations, including an itemized list of all expenses, lists of DOE staff members involved in planning and executing the trips, itineraries for all of the trips, and minutes for all official events that Granholm attended in connection with all of the trips.

A spokesman for Granholm didn’t respond by press time to The Epoch Times’ request for comment on the letter from McMorris Rodgers and Griffith.

Greening of Puerto Rico

During a Nov. 2, 2022, address before the Storage and Energy Storage Association of Puerto Rico on the island, Granholm described being asked by President Joe Biden to lead a comprehensive effort by the federal government to create a “Puerto Rico powered by 100 percent renewable energy by 2050, from modernizing the grid and integrating more renewables, to deploying far more solar- and battery-powered systems to those in more remote parts of the island, on individual rooftops and through community micro-grids.”

The initiative to convert Puerto Rico to an energy infrastructure of solar and other renewable sources is part of the Biden administration’s plans for the entire United States. The initiative is required because of the seriousness of climate change, according to the president.

Biden’s 2023 budget proposal described the initiative as “advancing clean energy and investing in climate science, strengthening resilience, advancing environmental justice, and doubling down on America’s global climate leadership. The President’s budget invests a total of $52.2 billion in discretionary budget authority to tackle the climate crisis, $10.9 billion more than FY 2023 or an increase of nearly 26 percent.”