Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm on Tuesday said she does not know her own stock portfolio when pressed by Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) over why she falsely testified last year about her stock-trading activities.
Hawley asked Granholm during a Tuesday congressional hearing why she incorrectly said she did not own individual stocks when she testified in front of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in April 2023.
"You did own multiple individual stocks and you neglected to report it to this committee for months afterward," Hawley said.
"I believed I had sold all individual stocks, and I was incorrect," Granholm said. "So you just don’t know your portfolio?" Hawley asked, to which Granholm replied, "Pretty much."
Granholm then claimed she informed the committee as soon as she realized her testimony was false, at which point Hawley introduced a board with a timeline showing Granholm quietly sold her individual stocks and then waited nearly a month before writing to the committee.
In the April 2023 hearing, Hawley questioned Granholm about reports indicating that about one-third of her Energy Department’s senior officials or their families owned stocks linked to the department’s work.
The Biden-appointed energy secretary has come under scrutiny for investing in stocks of companies that benefited from the Biden administration’s climate policies. In May 2021, for example, Granholm sold hundreds of thousands of shares in Proterra, a now-defunct green energy company that was backed by the Biden administration, earning a profit of $1.6 million.