Protesters at a Monday event where Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm was speaking were forcibly removed, or "brutalized" as the activists described it, after interrupting her remarks on climate change.
"Today we turned up to a keynote by the pro-pipeline U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm," activist group Climate Defiance posted on Twitter after the event in Birmingham, Mich. "We were peaceful. Her henchmen brutalized us anyway."
The group claimed one protester received bruises "the size of baseballs" and another was "dragged out by the ears." The disruptors chanted about Granholm's support for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a natural gas project in Appalachia. The event, sponsored by the Detroit Free Press, continued after the activists were dragged out.
"No MVP. No LNG. Granholm, you are killing me," the protesters yelled, referencing the liquified natural gas that would be carried in the pipeline. Granholm has repeatedly defended the pipeline, arguing it's necessary for energy security and moving to a zero-emissions system.
"Something that I hate is when what people say doesn't match what they do," a protester said. "That's what Granholm's doing. She's saying she's going to help the climate, she's going to have all these innovative solutions. Then, she claims that somehow drilling for more fossil fuels will get us to renewable energy. That's just not how it works."
Granholm is facing criticism from the other side of the aisle for failing to disclose that her husband owned stock in Ford Motor Company while the Biden admnistration was actively promoting its electric products. In 2021 she made a profit of $1.6 million on a sale of stock she owned in Proterra, an electric vehicle company the White House was also pushing.