Sec. of Energy nominee says she is 'obsessed' with creating climate-focused jobs

• Sec. of Energy nominee Jennifer Granholm expressed support for President Joe Biden's plan to create jobs through fighting climate change during her confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
• Biden signed a series of executive orders on Wednesday to address climate change, with job creation as a central component.
• Granholm reassured Republican lawmakers that she will commit to focusing green jobs in areas that produce fossil fuels to account for job loss.

Secretary of Energy nominee Jennifer Granholm expressed her intent to create new jobs through President Joe Biden's climate plan during her confirmation hearing on Wednesday, bolstering economic growth while fighting the climate crisis.

Biden signed a series of executive orders on Wednesday to "confront the existential threat of climate change," with one of the focuses being job creation through new, climate-focused jobs. In her confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Granholm said she supports Biden's plan to create new jobs by achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, in response to some lawmakers' concerns.

"I am obsessed with creating good paying jobs in America," Granholm said during the hearing.

Senate Republicans expressed concerns with Biden's $2 trillion climate plan that could eliminate fossil fuel jobs. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana asked during the hearing what the unemployment period would look like between when some fossil fuel workers would lose their jobs and when Biden's green jobs will be implemented.

"If you've lost a job that's putting food on the table now, it's cold comfort to know that years from now - perhaps in a different state with a different training within which you have - there'll be another job available," Cassidy said.

Granholm said she will be committed to focusing green-job creation in states with fossil fuel production, citing her experience as a former governor of Michigan and her work in moving toward clean energy.

Biden has touted his commitment to confronting the climate crisis and the economic downturn from the pandemic in a single effort. His actions on both matters are receiving wide support from CEOs and climate groups.