US Secretary of Energy visits Raleigh to talk Biden Administration's clean energy efforts

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- The US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm stopped in Raleigh on Friday.

Granholm visited the Siemens Energy Campus to highlight the green energy power grid.

She joined Gov. Roy Cooper to talk about the ongoing efforts to support industrial policy and manufacturing jobs as part of the Biden Administration's projects on clean energy.

She called North Carolina the heart of the battery belt, saying our state has been leading the way with education and infrastructure.

"If a battery company wants to come here, they want certain skills and they're providing these skills," she said. "Makes it very compelling, makes a good business case for a company to come and that's what you guys are doing."

Granholm then headed over to Wake Tech Community College's Center for Automotive Excellence to talk about the state's "clean energy manufacturing boom" and the new job opportunities being created.

In a press release, the US Department of Energy (DOE) revealed Friday details for 35 projects across 20 states that received a total of $1.93 billion in allocations of the Qualifying Advanced Energy Project (48C).

48C is an allocated tax credit funded by President Biden's Investing in America agenda through the Inflation Reduction Act. DOE said the act is aimed at accelerating clean energy manufacturing and recycling, as well as reducing greenhouse emissions at industrial facilities.

"The Biden-Harris Administration is executing an industrial strategy that prioritizes rebuilding our domestic manufacturing sector, creating good-paying jobs across the country," Granholm said in the press release. "Through the historic Advanced Energy Project Credit, we are leveraging the infrastructure, expertise, and grit of America's energy communities -- where the workers that powered our energy past, will power our energy future."

These projects will help create more pathways for training and employment in the clean energy and manufacturing sectors, DOE said.

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