Energy Secretary remains bullish on gas prices

“This president has taken dramatic steps to increase supply,” she said. “By releasing 1 million barrels per day from our reserve, as well as bringing in domestic producers, as well as international producers. We will be at record production levels next year.

Soaring gasoline prices have driven inflation in the United States for months, but they have eased in recent weeks, with average prices falling back below $4 a gallon. Granholm said she expects prices to continue to fall, but noted that there is little the United States can do to truly control the situation.

“As you know, gasoline comes from oil. Oil is traded on a global market. So we’re at the mercy, if you will, of what’s happening in the world,” the former Michigan governor said.

Granholm also discussed the potential benefits of the new Inflation Reduction Act, pushing back against suggestions that the bill’s incentives only benefit those who don’t need them. Biden signed the legislation last week.

She said the newly designed incentives for electric vehicles will not only help people buy these cars, but also, because of the way the law is written, encourage manufacturing in the United States.

“Additional restrictions will come into effect from January requiring domestic content. That means the materials, the supplies for those vehicles, will also have to be built in America,” she said.

« Why does it matter? Because the president said we have to make things in America — that we can’t rely on countries that don’t share our values.

Granholm also pushed back against Gallagher’s suggestion that solar technology isn’t reliable enough to rely on at this point.

“The technology is there. We just have to make sure it’s implemented,” she said.