Energy secretary sold $1.6 million holdings in electric bus maker after Biden visited firm
- August 9, 2023
U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm sold her holdings worth $1.6 million in the electric bus company Proterra in May 2021 shortly after President Joe Biden made a virtual visit to the company and long before it declared bankruptcy.
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Granholm, a former attorney general and two-term governor of Michigan, became a member of the company’s board of directors in March 30, 2017 and remained so while she was nominated. She resigned from the position after she was confirmed as Secretary, subject to an ethics agreement dated Jan. 16, 2021.
Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect The Public’s Trust and described by pro-Biden critics as a “thorn in the side of the Biden Administration,” argued the sale of the holdings is an example of the Biden administration’s ethics issues.
“She served on the board of Proterra until she was confirmed as secretary and then she inexplicably held on to stock options, as you mentioned, for an extended period of time, even until really the media pressure became too great, apparently, for her to be able to continue before she finally did sell those,” he told Just the News on Wednesday. “And meanwhile, the Biden administration, President Joe Biden, Vice President Harris, they were promoting the company. I believe the CEO made visits to the White House. It really, at that time, it really did not look good from an ethical perspective.”