On Friday, Biden Administration Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that other countries could “learn a lot” from China’s investment in clean energy in an interview with Wajahat Ali at the 2023 South by Southwest conference.
“China has been very sensitive and has actually invested a lot in their solutions to achieve their goals. So we’re hopeful that, you know, we can all learn from what China is doing, but the amount of money that they’re investing in clean energy is actually, you know, encouraging,” Granholm said.
Granholm had previously said that all countries “are susceptible to peer pressure” from countries pushing clean energy agendas.
Fox News reports that in the same interview, she shouted directly into the camera, “Climate change is an existential threat!” and then wanted to know if Americans cared about their children of the future.
According to The Post Millennial, electric car batteries manufactured in China have been connected to forced labor camps in the Xinjiang province where criticism has mounted that the Uyghur Muslim community have been forced into slave labor. Reports emerged in 2022 of the EV batteries as well as solar panels likely manufactured in Xinjiang.
In June 2022, Granholm said, “Right now we are witnessing the beginning of one of the most significant events in human history. The Clean Energy Transition. It is long overdue and it can’t progress fast enough.”
States like California have tried to make this transition to renewable energy before either its infrastructure, technology, or power demands could warrant the move. In May, company executives who own electrical grids began making dire pronouncements about the consequences of such a premature move and the state subsequently experiencing rolling power outages as energy supply did not meet demand.
In March, Granholm made similar comments when she seized on the crisis of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and called it an “urgent moment” to transition to “clean energy.”