Conservatives Push for Energy Secretary's Resignation

Conservative groups are demanding that Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm resign over what they claim were "repeated ethical lapses." 

In a five-page letter to President Joe Biden Tuesday, a coalition of right-leaning organizations alleged that Granholm, the former Democrat Michigan governor, had "disregarded and de-prioritized her ethics obligations at every turn," The Washington Examiner reported.

The groups, including the Heartland Institute think tank, the conservative media watchdog Media Research Center, the Energy and Environment Legal Institute, and ethics watchdogs Protect the Public's Trust and American Accountability Foundation, wrote to Biden that Grahholm has refused to accept liability. 

"This has left the American public wondering where exactly the buck stops in your administration," they said in the letter.

The demand for Granholm's resignation comes a month after she faced an ethics complaint from Protect the Public's Trust after she admitted to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that her husband, David Mulhern, holds stock in Ford Motor Company even though the company will likely benefit once the Biden administration approves electric vehicle subsidies. 

Granholm told the panel she didn't disclose the shares on her financial disclosures because she learned about them on May 13, when the shares were valued at more than $2,400, and the shares were sold on May 15. 

Meanwhile, in another instance in April, she said she was mistaken when she testified that she didn't own individual stocks and had meant to say that she "did not own any conflicting stocks."

The letter also pointed out that before she was confirmed in 2021, Granholm sat on the board of electric bus maker Proterra, which filed for bankruptcy last week. 

In May 2021, Granholm sold 240,000 Proterra shares, netting $1.6 million, after watchdogs and Republicans spoke out about concerns of conflicts of interest after the Energy Department and others in the Biden administration delivered EV subsidies and appeared at events boosting Proterra. 

The letter also pointed out that the U.S. Office of Special Counsel found that Granholm violated the Hatch Act when she appeared to endorse Democrats in an interview in 2021. No disciplinary action was taken, though afterward the agency determined she had not gotten "significant" training about the federal law, which bars federal employees from engaging in some political activities. 

The groups also wrote that the Energy Department employed nuclear official Sam Brinton, who had faced arrests for allegedly stealing airport luggage. 

Brinton was sentenced to 180 days in jail and paid $3,600 in victim restitution in connection to a theft in Las Vegas, after pleading no contest. 

Records obtained by the watchdog Functional Government Initiative showed he was on a taxpayer-backed trip to the Energy Department's Nevada National Security Site when the luggage was stolen. 

The White House and Energy Department did not reply to The Examiner's requests for comment.

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