Our headline event with Jennifer Granholm. We are happy to accept your questions and i will ask as many as time permits. Said to semitic westin online, email headliners atpress. Org and put energy in the subject line. For our cspan and public radio audiences, be aware that in the audience today are members of the general public. Any applause you hear is not necessarily from the working press. Three years ago this week, Jennifer Granholm was sworn in as the 16th secretary of energy to lead the Biden Administrations efforts to move the United States toward a Clean Energy Transition that can achieve net zero Carbon Emissions by 2050. While there has been successes, there have been challenges. Secretary granholm helped the Administration Push policies to develop a new generation of technologies for hydrogen, batteries, fusion energy, Energy Storage and grid reliability. Yet she has faced difficulties. Theres been controversy over how the department of energy will handle critical mineral competition with china. A former twoterm michigan governor and a longsuffering Detroit Lions fan, i feel you on that, secretary granholm has been on the front lines on the transition to electric vehicles, major issue for the Auto Industry and its workforce. Dev transition has shown promise with sales including a fourfold increasing and improving u. S. Manufacturing sector but it still faces consumer criticism because of limits to the charging infrastructure. Increased vehicle because an ever challenging supply for auto companies. We are eager to hear more about the progress of the clean energy and manufacturing revolution as a part of the Energy Departments mission to promote a Clean Energy Future. Please join me in a warm National Press club welcome for Energy SecretaryJennifer Granholm. [applause] secy granholm madam president , thank you so much for that gracious and accurate introduction in terms of the challenges we are facing. Im delighted to be here at the National Press club. Let me cut to the chase and start with a number two. 14. 8 million jobs since january, 2021, the greatest number of jobs ever created under any president in american history, under any term of any president in american history. 353,000 jobs just last month. The longest continuous stretch of unemployment under 4 in 50 years. More people working than at any point in american history, the strongest economic recovery of all major advanced economies. Why is this happening . It is not coincidence. It is not luck. It is the result of a focused, strategic plan. The Biden Administration is using a 21st century industrial strategy to bring manufacturing back to america after years of off shoring to lift bruised communities from their knees and bring future facing the jobs to workers. Its a strategy to invest in america, all of america. Our industrial strategy for clean Energy Starts with a recognition of true facts. First, clean energy represents a 23 trillion Global Economic opportunity. Essentially, a new Industrial Revolution as these countries strive to address climate change. Second, our past economic policies have failed us in many cases, tragically. From before the start of this century, socalled free trade, trickledown economics have ushered in losses of millions of jobs and tens of thousands of factories across the nation. Policies of administrations past effectively encouraged manufacturers to go abroad, factories that had anchored entire communities from their moorings had been sucked overseas. Its not an abstraction. I know this from the depths of my soul. Loss of manufacturing jobs was the most sickening, despairing part of my eight years as governor of michigan. A little town called greenville, michigan, my first year in office a refrigerator factory owned by electrolux was threatening to go to mexico. In greenville, it was essentially a one company town, 8000 people lived there in almost 3000 people work at the factory. They proudly called themselves the refrigerator capital of north america. I remember the meeting where we made our plea to the electrolux executives. We put every incentive we had on the table, state, local, labor. We just wanted to keep the factory there. The company at the meeting, they took our list of incentives and went outside the room for 17 minutes. They came back in and they said, this is the most generous and committee has been to try to keep jobs. But there is nothing you can do to compensate for the fact that we can pay one dollar 57 per hour in mexico. So they left. And it was like a nuclear bomb went off in little greenville. When the last refrigerator came off the assembly line, the workers had a gathering that they called the last supper. It was atklackels orchard pavilion. I went in it was a community week, community grieving not just the loss of jobs but the loss of their identity. One fathers words seared my soul. He said,guv, ive worked at that factory for 30 years. I went from high school to factory. My father worked at that factory , my grandfather worked at that factory, all i know is how to make refrigerators. So, tell me, who is ever going to hire me . Whos ever going to hire me . That question was asked by everybody at the orchard pavilion that day. Its been asked by workers in every one of the 60,000 factories lost during the first part of this century. That greenville story happened over and over again in michigan and across the industrial midwest. Scores of Companies Moving offshore, michigans proud Industrial Base in manufacturing meant we were hit harder than any state in the country. No matter how many incentives a state offers, no state has the resources to compete with the industrial policies of china, the low wages in mexico. Is it any wonder that i and other michigan politicians used to campaign on nafta and cafta have given us the shafta . With governors with no federal partner . Honestly, it was like bringing a knife to a gunfight. But we sure tried. We incentivized a solar factory to come to greenville. United solar, a great fanfare and it would employ electrolux workers, there were three factory buildings built on the site where the electrolux factory previously stood. Workers were hired. And then, because of cheap solar panels from china flooding the market, united solar went bankrupt in 2012. The remnants were sold to a Chinese Company and the plants shut down. Greenville, it again. Jack welch the iconic ceo of General Electric famously said that he wished he could put his factories on a barge and float them to wherever costs were lowest. Manufacturing is the backbone of a nations economy. But we just watched as other nations stepped on our week spine and poached ourip and our jobs and ceos, global ceos and economic elites justify the losses by invoking socalled free trade and trickledown economics and they glossed over the fact that other countries were not abiding by the same rules. When i was done being governor, i visited china to see how china was crafting its industrial strategy for the energy sector. At one event where mayors of chinese towns were showcasing their technologies and strategies, one mayor leans over to me and he says, so, when do you think the United States is going to get National Energy policy . I lamented that congress in gridlock and the mayor grinned at me and said, take your time. Take your time. Because of course they saw our passive itty is there opportunity. So, enter joe biden. Joe from scranton, pa, amtrak joe. He saw what was happening across the country. And he tasked his cabinet with developing a policy to bring jobs and businesses back home to america. An industrial strategy for the 21st century based in part upon clean energy, a future of manufacturing revival, thriving businesses, good jobs for kids, Energy Independence and products made in america. And you know what . The president s strategy is working, folks. Did i mention 350,000 jobs last month . We now have the most significant clean energy and Climate Strategy in the nations history , arguably in the world. The strategy for Building Clean Energy come a Clean Energy Future in the United States rests on four legs. First, making the United States the irresistible nation for investing in clean energy. Second, and that those investments provide desk ensuring that those investments provide Energy Benefits and the communities left behind. Third, strengthening americas workforce so that our workers have the skills they need to compete in this Global Clean Energy market. Fourth, with cutting edger d supporting industry so each future generation of Clean Energy Technology will be more innovative than the last. To carry out this industrial strategy, ive been have been proud that we have extensively reorganize the department of energy. Doe is now investing over 100 billion into Clean Energy Demonstration and deployment through grants and loans and rebates and other public tools. We actually have 60 new programs under the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act. We set of new offices to focus on demonstration, clean Energy Supply chains, the electricity grid, community engagement. We have hired 780 talented experts. We recruited heavily from the private sector to serve this expanded mission. Our motto is deploy, deploy, deploy. This restructured organization has, as of january, launched 100 of these new programs. The first pillar of this bidenharris strategy come industrial strategy is making america irresistible for investment in growth. Answer the call. Irresistible for investment growth. The irresistible nation. We are providing lots of carrots to incentivize businesses to invest in america again. As we say at doe, the Clean Energy Revolution is government enabled but its private sector led. We got busy with our National Laboratories and input from industry. Weve developed commercial liftoff reports. Those commercial liftoff reports are outlining the roadmaps for key technologies like nextgeneration nuclear, virtual our plants, carbon management, longduration Energy Storage come industrial decarbonization, nitrogen. Then we identified the gaps in the supply chains that we need to fill. In the industries where there is a supply demand mismatch that might make investors nervous, we are providing the demand signal with tools like the defense production act and pay for difference contracts and federal procurement. If you take Clean Hydrogen for example, we have developed a Technology Liftoff pathway to commercialize Clean Hydrogen. Then we developed a Clean Hydrogen earth shot, and energy earth shot with audacious goals to bring down the cost to one dollar per one kilogram within one decade. Then we announced seven hubs, Hydrogen Hubs closed coasttocoast to like producers and consumers and infrastructure. We are building entire ecosystems, supply chains, workforce training, supply and demand for hydrogen, financing. Our upfront public investments are going to crowd in billions of dollars of private sector dollars, laying the foundation for this thriving commodity market. It will help to create tens of thousands of good paying jobs. Thats just one example of the industrial strategy, in one area. We are developing and have developed analogous strategies with harrys, electric vehicles with batteries, electric vehicles, karma dioxide removal and so much more. As we do this, we are open id about it. We know we have gaps in our supply chains, china for example has adopted 14 fiveyear plans that are focused on dominating supply chains and Manufacturing Products that we used to excel in. China already controls so much like Critical Minerals and processing for batteries. And they are producing huge volumes of lowcost solar and evs and they hope to bigfoot the global market. As we saw with the Solar Company in greenville, they been successful. But, we are fighting back. We are being deliberate about building up these supply chains both inside the u. S. And with our allies. We understand that energy is a National Security imperative. We cannot depend upon countries that have orchestrated monopolies on key technologies whose values we dont share. Weve seen how europes dependence on russia for natural gas allowed putin to weaponize energy and we are not going to do that. Our allies, by the way, they dont want to be captive to unfriendly nations either. We have to create markets with trusted allies and we are building at home. So, its also the president s approach and its still early but since President Biden took office, private companies have announced 650 billion in investments and semi conductors in Clean Energy Technologies and other 21stcentury industries. In the energy space alone, 400 billion. I know thats just dollars and it sounds its hard to grapple with that kind of amount. What it means is that more than 500 new or expanding manufacturing facilities in clean energy alone. Thats less than three years from the passage of the president s agenda. Think about it, 500 communities that are seeing future facing industries, hiring their people. We are bringing manufacturing home. Instead of importing battery components from nj, china, nan jane, we will build anodes in washington and castles in tennessee, separator material in indiana, electrolytes in texas. Its closed down a factory in michigan. We are building electric vehicles in a formerly shuttered plant in lordstown, ohio. We are building ev batteries. Instead of importing solar panels from china, we will manufacture our own in georgia and alabama and ohio. Investments in factories and jobs are growing in every pocket of america from alaska to atlanta, from the west coast to West Virginia. I visited West Virginia a few months ago and it was once a thriving steel town. The steel mill used to employ 12,000 people until other nations dumped cheap steel and force the mill into bankruptcy and the plant closed down. The sidewalks in weirdon rolled up and the downtown shops closed up and many people moved away. Then last year, a Company Called forum energy decided to start their business in weirtdon incentivize by the federal tax credits in large part. Form makes utility scale iron air batteries and they located the plant on the site of the old steel mill. At a recent job fair, hundreds of people were lined up. The living symbol that they are bringing to that town. At the ribboncutting, one of the city council members, bearded guy with white hair told me this familiar story. He said i worked at that steel mill. My father worked at that steel mill. I thought my kids would work here, too but they moved away when the plant closed. Heres where the story diverges from greenville. Now, we have new life. Like the Phoenix Rising from the ashes ,weirto is risingn. But not so fast. Cleveland cliffs phil Company Bought a unit of the bankruptweirton steel. Last week, as i thought about these remarks, workers at the template facility were notified that they were going to be laid off as well in the factories going to be idle largely because of more cheap steel flooding the market from competitor nation. This transition is not a straight line. This is a global battle, but we are on offense. In our toolshed, trade policy is the back hope vacco b ackhoe is the tool we use and we will not relent. If we fully deploy our tax credits and grants and loans to boost Domestic Production of these technologies, we are also working handinhand with our colleagues at the u. S. Trade representatives office, the treasury and commerce, the state and the white house. Let me be clear, trade and International Finance and National Security are a foundational part of a holistic, coherent, sustainable industrial strategy. More will come on that. Done right, and it will be done right, it will be a win for u. S. Companies and workers in a win for our allies and win for her partners, win for diversifying this Global Supply chain and a win for urgently reducing Global Carbon pollution. The thing about empowering american businesses to invest is that Success Builds upon success and growth builds upon growth. Of course, injustice can build upon injustice. T the secondenet of our industrial strategy for clean energy is to put the people and the committees who have historically