WASHINGTON, July 8 — On the ground at the Department of Energy, Secretary Jennifer Granholm is navigating one of the most volatile energy landscapes in recent memory. The Canadian-born American, who has served as the 16th U.S. Secretary of Energy since February 2021, now finds herself at the center of a White House strategy to manage oil prices that have sent shockwaves through the global economy. Granholm’s tenure spans two administrations — first under President Joe Biden and now continuing under President Donald Trump.
That continuity is itself a story. A former two-term governor of Michigan, from 2003 to 2011, she brought executive experience to a federal agency that oversees everything from nuclear weapons stockpiles to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve and Price Stability
That reserve — 375 million barrels of crude oil as of March 2025 — has become Granholm’s most visible lever. She has authorized two major releases from the SPR: 180 million barrels in 2022 and another 50 million barrels in 2024. Both moves were designed to stabilize oil prices during periods of global supply disruption.
By late March 2025, with oil prices surging again, Granholm made her position clear. “All options are on the table,” she stated on March 31, 2025, signaling that further releases remained possible.
The remark came at a moment when energy markets were watching every signal from Washington. The SPR releases represent a direct intervention in markets that Granholm has not shied away from. The 2022 release — the largest ever from the strategic reserve — was a response to price spikes following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The 2024 release addressed a different set of pressures, though the source material does not specify the trigger.
Clean Energy and the Inflation Reduction Act
Beyond the emergency oil releases, Granholm has been the public face of the Biden administration’s — and now the Trump administration’s — clean energy push. She has overseen $62 billion in grants flowing from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. That legislation, signed into law by President Biden, represented the largest federal investment in climate and clean energy in American history.
The scale of the spending is enormous. Granholm’s department has been tasked with distributing those funds to projects across the country — from battery manufacturing to grid modernization to carbon capture demonstration plants.
The source material does not detail which specific projects have received funding or how much has been disbursed to date. Granholm herself holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School. She is married to Daniel Mulhern, a political consultant.
Born February 5, 1959, in Vancouver, British Columbia, she is a naturalized American citizen who rose through Michigan politics before taking the national stage.
What to Watch Next
The question now, as of July 2026, is whether Granholm will authorize another SPR release. Oil markets remain volatile. The 375 million barrels still in the reserve represent a significant buffer, but each drawdown reduces the nation’s emergency cushion.
The secretary has kept her options open, and the White House has given no public indication of its next move. For a department that manages everything from the nation’s nuclear arsenal to its strategic oil reserves to its clean energy grants, Granholm’s portfolio is as broad as any in the cabinet.
The coming months will test whether the tools at her disposal — the SPR, the IRA grants, the regulatory authority of the department — are enough to meet the moment.
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