WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - A federal government watchdog has sued the Department of Energy (DOE) alleging that it is wrongfully withholding records it is entitled to review under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) seeks records pertaining to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and grants awarded to electric vehicle parts manufacturer Proterra, a company on whose board she served.
“Proterra had some ties to the companies that were recipients of the grants,” said PPT director Michael Chamberlain. “In fact, they had some exclusive supplier arrangements with Daimler Truck who was one of the recipients of the grants. When the grant was very first announced early in the process, back in April, she participated in a phone call promoting the grant to industry trucking industry leaders. She was also quoted in the press release.”
Granholm and her husband Daniel Mulhern founded Granholm Mulhern Associates (GMA), a firm that provided consulting services to green energy companies but federal ethics laws and the Biden Ethics Pledge prohibit appointees from participating in certain matters and most communications with former employers.
“We are looking for these records so that we're able to determine whether the Secretary and others within the agency have been complying with their ethics obligations,” Chamberlain told Legal Newsline. It's important to ensure that high level political appointees and, and high-level officials within the executive branch that work at the administrative agencies in the federal government are complying with their ethics obligations and they're avoiding conflicts of interests, and they're not engaging in possible conduct.”
Granholm continued to hold stock options in Proterra even as President Joe Biden and other White House officials actively promoted Proterra, according to media reports. She eventually divested the holdings in a transaction that netted her a reported $1.6 million.
“The Biden administration's involvement and promotion of the company may have had some impact on the stock price,” Chamberlain said. “Before she divested from it, Biden administration officials and the president himself made a trip to the Proterra plant and they promoted Proterra while she held onto the stock.”
PPT alleges that Granholm participated in prohibited political activity during an appearance at a campaign event for Terry McAuliffe, Democratic candidate for governor of Virginia, where she referred to Biden as "my boss."
“There's a law called the Hatch Act and employees of the federal government, with some exceptions, but are generally prohibited from engaging in partisan political activity and from the information that we have, we believe that she did it in such a way that she portrayed herself in her official capacity,” Chamberlain added.
When reached for comment, DOE spokeswoman Charisma Troiano said the agency had no time to respond to questions about Granholm's ethics violations because it is preoccupied with rising temperatures and extreme weather events.
"The planet is warming faster than ever, the cost and impact of extreme weather events are intensifying, and yet what some people are spending their time on is a $400 late fee that was already paid on a clerical oversight," Troiano told the Free Beacon.
"As we do every day, DOE and the Secretary remain focused on tackling the existing climate crisis and delivering an equitable clean energy future that will bring cheaper power, cleaner air and good-paying jobs for more Americans."