DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – On Monday, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm paid a visit to speak at The Townsend Hotel in Birmingham, discussing the future of Michigan and the clean energy industry. 

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Carol Cain, host of CBS Detroit’s “Michigan Matters” led the conversation with the former Michigan Governor about the environment. 

Granholm said solar is one clean energy solution — one that could still work in Michigan because it is based on light and not heat — but not the only solution according to the Free Press. She also mentioned wind-based renewable energy in Michigan, how Ludington hosts one of the largest pumped storage hydroelectric facilities in the country, and addressed how Michigan is hoping to increase its number of nuclear plants. 

She did acknowledge that there would be fewer assembly jobs needed for Electric Vehicles (EV), but added “if we are smart about getting this full battery supply chain,” jobs will be added. 

The goal is 100% clean electricity by 2035 and net zero by 2050 according to Granholm, and net zero means there will be some fossil usage, but decarbonized.  She also acknowledged that people “just making a good living” in the oil industry need to transition too, and that there could be opportunities to lean on the oil companies for geothermal possibilities according to the Free Press. 

“If you’re looking for a field that has all of the things that will make you feel fulfilled as a human, because you will be solving the world’s greatest problems, I would encourage you to look at clean energy. … Sometimes you don’t know that you are in the middle of history when you’re in the middle of it,” Granholm said, “And right now, we are in the middle of this history, making change. And Michigan is the tip of the spear.”

There was also a group protesting the speech, a climate oriented action group called Climate Defiance, which opposed several fossil fuels projects including the Alaska LNG project.  Granholm did mention them in her talk. 

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“I would be out there marching with them in terms of, we’ve got to do this, we’ve got to do this,” Granholm said of the protesters and the need for action. “On the other hand, you cannot just flip a switch, because we have whole economies that have been built up around using fossil fuels. And so the question is, what does that transition look like?”