Granholm, a former governor, now energy secretary

Note: This story was updated at 7:30 p.m.

Jennifer Granholm, a former Michigan governor, was sworn in as energy secretary on Thursday.

Granholm was the first female governor of Michigan, and she is the second woman to lead the U.S. Department of Energy.

Her swearing-in ceremony on Thursday followed a 64-35 confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate. U.S. senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, both Tennessee Republicans, were among the 35 senators who voted against Granholm’s confirmation.

Granholm is the 16th secretary of energy.

U.S. Department of Energy sites and operations in Oak Ridge include East Tennessee Technology Park; Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Oak Ridge Office; Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management; Office of Scientific and Technical Information; and Y-12 National Security Complex.

“I am humbled by the faith President Biden has placed in me to lead this incredible team at the Department of Energy,” Granholm said in a press release. “DOE is powered by brilliant scientists, engineers, and energy policy experts who are the very best for the job we’ve been tasked with: to develop and deploy new clean energy technologies that will achieve the administration’s goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and secure our nation’s future. I am so ready to work alongside them as we kickstart America’s clean energy revolution, create millions of good-paying union jobs, and deliver benefits to American workers and communities across the nation.”

As energy secretary, Granholm will oversee DOE’s scientific research, work on the nuclear weapons stockpile, and cleanup work.

After her swearing-in ceremony, Granholm released a video message and blog post. The department said they explain how DOE will tackle climate change by deploying clean-energy solutions that deliver cheap, abundant, and clean power to fuel America’s clean energy revolution.

Before her nomination as energy secretary, Granholm was the first woman elected governor of Michigan, serving two terms from 2003 to 2011.

Granholm was also the first woman elected attorney general of Michigan, serving as the state’s top law enforcement officer from 1998 to 2002, the press release said.

Granholm has been on the faculty of the University of California in Berkeley as a distinguished professor of practice in the Goldman School of Public Policy, focusing on the intersection of law, clean energy, manufacturing, policy, and industry, a press release said. She also served as an advisor to the Clean Energy Program of the Pew Charitable Trusts.

She began her career in public service as a judicial clerk for Michigan’s 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. She became a federal prosecutor in Detroit in 1990, and in 1994, she was appointed Wayne County Corporation Counsel.

Granholm is an immigrant from Canada, and she is an honors graduate of both the University of California in Berkeley and Harvard Law School. She and her husband, Daniel G. Mulhern, have three children.

Read an Associated Press story about Granholm’s confirmation here.