Energy secretary Granholm says she failed to reveal stock holdings; GOP calls for investigation

WASHINGTON (AP) — The top Republican on the Senate Energy panel is calling for an investigation of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, after she told the committee she mistakenly provided false information about her family's stock holdings in testimony earlier this year.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso on Wednesday asked the Energy Department's inspector general to look into what Barrasso called "multiple instances of questionable ethical conduct since the start of her tenure'' in 2021.

Barrasso's request came after Granholm sent a letter to the committee revealing she owned financial stocks as recently as May, contradicting testimony she gave to the panel in April.

Granholm also said her husband, Daniel Mulhern, owned previously undisclosed stock in Ford Motor Co., a key player in the Biden administration's efforts to improve fuel efficiency for cars and trucks and boost sales of electric vehicles.

Granholm said at an April 20 budget hearing that she did not own any individual stocks, saying she was only invested in mutual funds. That comment was a mistake, Granholm said. “I should have said that I did not own any conflicting stocks,” she wrote in a June 9 letter to Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, chairman of the energy panel.

Granholm said she had stocks in six companies that were deemed “non-conflicting assets” by agency ethics officials but has since sold them. She declined to identify the companies or say how much the stocks were worth, but said that information would be publicly revealed on a financial disclosure report due this month.

Granholm also said she recently became aware that her husband owned stock in Ford, which has worked closely with the Biden...