Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm received blowback from critics this week after she testified before the Senate in support of a plan to fully establish an all-electric vehicle fleet in the U.S. military by the 2030s, leading some observers to wonder if the Biden administration believes politics trumps national security.
Granholm, a former Michigan Democratic governor, responded to questions from Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, by claiming, “I think we can get there” – and that reducing reliance on the “volatility of globally-traded fossil fuels” is key.
She claimed an EV military fleet would feel fewer effects from the economic repercussions of events like the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ernst called the plans for a fully-electric military “expensive” and “unreliable” that would cost billions.
On “The Five” Thursday, co-host Greg Gutfeld noted how Granholm invoked the Ukraine war in her testimony but not in the context of the tragic loss of thousands of lives.
“The solution isn’t to somehow mediate a [military] solution, but to talk about switching to EV tanks. That’s their solution as people are killing each other as we’re sponsoring a war,” he said.
Retired Marine Corps bomb technician Johnny “Joey” Jones, who lost both legs in Afghanistan, said Granholm “will get a lot of innocent people killed” with her EV military plans.
Jones said the Biden Pentagon unveiled its climate policy and strategies before addressing strategies on more pressing issues like the Ukraine war, Chinese malcontent toward Taiwan, and the illegal immigration crisis on the Mexican border.
“This is an administration that literally cannot protect us on our own southern border. But, by God, we’re going to have electric tanks,” he said.
US soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment, 1st Infantry Division train with M1A2 Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicle (BFV), at Nowa Deba, Poland. (Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“And you can only be serious about this if you believe there’s a future where we’re one solid collective, and there are no wars.”
Jones also argued a costly transition to an unreliable green fleet could also accelerate “forfeiture of [U.S.] sovereignty.”
Unlike past instances of wartime, he argued, military leaders’ strategies ended up advancing technologies for the next conflict out of a race toward dominance, not a “righteous call.”
“Five” co-host Judge Jeanine Pirro added that Granholm doesn’t have the “chops” to muse about the supposed need for electric tanks and Humvees.
“This administration is determined and on-track to eliminate American energy independence under the guise of clean energy. And as they’re doing so, they’re creating a national security risk,” Pirro said, adding that most of the Biden administration’s green energy goals rely in some way on Communist China.
Granholm previously offered a public warning at the most recent SXSW festival, claiming global warming is “an existential threat” and asking the crowd, “Don’t you care about climate change? Do you care about the future for you? For your children?”
