Jennifer Granholm has a message for global energy companies: Now's the time to invest in the U.S., Daniel writes.

Why it matters: As Energy secretary, Granholm — who just joined DGA Group as a senior counselor — oversaw the dramatic expansion of DOE programs that the Trump administration is targeting for sweeping cuts and office closures.

• But President Trump's broader energy-dominance agenda can still flourish as long as the IRA's energy tax credits are kept largely intact, Granholm told Daniel.

What she's saying: "What I am telling people is that, if these tax credits for manufacturing in the United States stay, and the 10% tariff stays, there is not a better time to locate in the United States if you are looking to do a big [capital expenditure] project," Granholm said.

• New development could be easier, she said, if this Congress addresses permitting legislation. And she noted the Trump administration's openness to using public lands for energy projects.
• She's bullish the administration will continue support for advanced nuclear, enhanced geothermal, and minerals projects that all have gotten bipartisan backing.

Federal incentives spurred hundreds of U.S. factories to announce plans to build or expand, she said — but many still haven't had ribbon-cuttings.

• That means the Trump administration should want to preserve the tax credits because it "can take credit for all of those," she said.

The big picture: Her new counseling role harks back to her job as secretary. It sent her crisscrossing the country to cheer the agency's funding as a win for economic development and jobs.

• Reflecting on last November's Republican trifecta, Granholm said other election-cycle issues crowded out the IRA and IIJA programs, while climate change was "not as high on people's list as how much they're making."

Between the lines: Biden officials like Granholm had reasoned that the bulk of DOE money was safe from Republican cuts because it flowed to red states and congressional districts.

• Today, "I don't have confidence that they're fully safe," Granholm said.
• Republican appropriators on the Hill are open to considering DOGE cuts in the upcoming budget process.

Recent DOE loan disbursements and funding for nuclear fuel supply contracts, however, give her hope.

• Before she left the agency, Granholm had lunch with her successor, Chris Wright, and came away "very hopeful that there would be continuity in many areas."
• "It's a question of who's actually doing the big overall policy and what the administration is focused on," she said.

The bottom line: The appeal to move manufacturing back home has special resonance to Granholm as the Trump White House pursues a full-scale trade war.

• "Tariffs, obviously, are a tool," Granholm said. "But so are carrots."

Companies making solar energy components are showcasing their manufacturing prowess to Republicans in hopes of staving off reconciliation cuts, Daniel writes.

Why it matters: Solar employs more than a quarter-million people spread across every state.

• IRA proponents have been amplifying the message of how all of the law's energy credits fit together — and how repealing demand-juicing incentives the GOP dislikes could upend supply-inducing provisions they support.

Zoom in: About 30 companies making panels, solar shingles, inverters, trackers, modules and inverters met with nearly two dozen congressional offices primarily representing the Midwest.

• Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, speaking to the group in the Capitol last week, distilled the tax debate to three numbers: "45, 48, 25."
• Fairly widespread support for the 45X manufacturing credit must be matched for the 48E investment tax credit and the 25D rooftop solar credit, Krishnamoorthi said.
• "What's the point of just building stuff if we can't sell it?" he said.

The other side: Rep. Ralph Norman, cochair of the Bipartisan Solar Caucus, didn't explicitly say whether he supported phasing out the credits.

• "Embracing an 'all-of-the-above' energy strategy is crucial, and solar plays a role in that mix," Norman said in a statement to Daniel.
• "But let me be clear — that does not mean we support endless subsidies," he added.

Rep. Julie Fedorchak introduced legislation last week to phase out the investment and production tax credits for wind and solar.

• The rollout of wind and solar has caused adverse impacts on the power grid and energy markets, Fedorchak told Daniel in February.

💵 1. Follow the money: House Energy and Commerce Republicans wrote to eight recipients of the EPA's Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund grant program to question the fund's "potential lack of due diligence in selecting award recipients."

• The "speed with which money was pushed out the door by the Biden administration's EPA" has "raised additional questions about certain GGRF recipients," wrote E&C Chair Brett Guthrie and Reps. Morgan Griffith and Gary Palmer.

👀 2. Firing back: Meanwhile, E&C Democrats are demanding that Wright and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin explain the effects of agency layoffs on energy costs, American innovation, and public health.

• Agency downsizing will "drive up home electricity prices even as the Trump administration separately guts programs elsewhere in the government dedicated to assisting families with those costs," Reps. Frank Pallone, Kathy Castor, and Yvette Clarke wrote to Wright.

💻 3. Removal challenged: The Sierra Club and a group of environmental and science organizations filed a lawsuit in District Court in D.C. challenging the Trump administration's scrubbing of climate and environmental justice information online.

• The lawsuit cites tools like EJScreen and the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool that regulators, academics, and advocates have used to identify communities disproportionately affected by pollution and climate change, the groups said.