11 who is the new secretary of energy

Here is their conversation, lightly edited:. Mullins: Remind us who Ernie Moniz is and what we should know about him.

Wasser: Ernie Moniz is a local guy — born and raised in Fall River. In , he was tapped by the Obama administration to lead the Department of Energy, and probably his biggest legacy to date is the Iran Nuclear Deal.

As a scientist who truly understood the details of what was being negotiated, he played an instrumental role in that agreement. Moniz was also deeply involved in the Paris Climate Accord and in other big multinational clean energy programs like Mission Innovation and the Clean Energy Ministerial. What can you tell us about it?

Criticism of Moniz tends to focus first and foremost on his ties to fossil fuel companies. He previously served on an advisory board for BP, one of the biggest oil and gas companies in the world. So people are worried that Moniz would be in the pocket of fossil fuel companies?

Some are, for sure. If confirmed by the Senate, Granholm is expected to play a role in the department's support of advanced batteries, energy efficiency and electricity generation from renewable and nuclear power as Biden makes curbing climate change one of the pillars of his administration.

She would also likely deal with energy ministers in Russia, Saudi Arabia and other oil and gas-producing countries. Granholm would be the second female U. President Donald Trump's two energy secretaries spent much of their time on oil and gas politics.

Rick Perry, his first, was a former governor of Texas. Most of the department's budget goes to modernizing the country's stockpile of nuclear warheads and to cleaning up nuclear sites. Biden picked Granholm over Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, his former adviser when he was in the Senate, and who served in the Obama administration as deputy secretary of energy. Granholm also beat out Arun Majumdar, the first director of the department's agency that promotes and funds research and development of advanced energy technologies, and Ernest Moniz, who was energy secretary during the Obama administration.

James B. Governor of South Carolina, Chemical Engineering, Rice University, President, Coca-Cola Company, Deputy Secretary of Defense, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, Director, Central Intelligence Agency, Secretary of Defense, Assistant to President Carter, Former Secretaries of Energy.

The United States never stopped importing oil during the Trump administration, though domestic production rose. On a monthly basis, U. Energy Information Administration. But the most recent EIA data shows that pattern continuing after Biden became president in , including U. Perry oversaw pro-oil industry policies during his time at the Department of Energy. A former governor of Texas, he has close ties to the Texas oil industry and has held leadership roles on the boards of two petroleum companies.

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm has pushed the Biden administration's plans to develop domestic clean energy, arguing that the U. Granholm standing up and begging His Royal Highness Abdulaziz bin Salman to send more crude so we can drive down the cost of gasoline," Perry said.