Feds fume over Granholm SUV gas story
The Herald’s story about U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm riding around Boston in a gas-guzzling SUV has the federal department fuming.
Granholm made the front page in Saturday’s paper when she followed up her comments here about the need for more investment in efficient, sustainable infrastructure through President Biden’s “Build Back Better” bill by hopping right into a Chevy Suburban Premier, which doesn’t rank particularly well in terms of environmental friendliness.
But the feds felt like the Herald’s focus on the “gasguzzler” SUV was just pumping up a non-issue.
“Would the Herald run this kind of a story if it was a minivan? Shame to see journalism like this at a time when there a real dollars coming to Massachusetts that will lower costs and create jobs for families and workers,” a Department of Energy spokeswoman said in a statement emailed over on Saturday.
The department’s media office didn’t respond to a request Friday about how she squares her ride with her comments about the need for better sustainability and efficiency. But when the rubber hit the road and they read the story, the spokeswoman decided to send that missive over, per the email. Granholm, who currently would be 15th in the line of succession for the presidency if her Canadian birth didn’t make her ineligible for it, is a former two-term governor of Michigan. She — like U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, the former Boston mayor — has been dispatched to pitch the “Build Back Better” bill around the country on behalf of the administration.
“We need to act quickly both on environmental justice but also on saving the planet,” Granholm told reporters inside the in-progress shell of the striking new Arts Academy overlooking Fenway Park on Friday.
“So much of your greenhouse gas emissions involves buildings and vehicles. And so those two pieces are embedded in the Build Back Better agenda.”
A few minutes later, she and several members of her entourage were piling into the large white Chevrolet Suburban Premier they’d rolled up in.
The webpage maintained by Granholm’s own Department of Energy that is the government “official source” for fuel economy lookups pegs the 2021 Suburban at somewhere between 16 and 23 miles per gallon overall, depending on whether it’s using diesel, premium gas or regular gas. For city driving — as the slow going in the area right around Fenway is — the SUV can get as few as 14 miles per gallon.
A couple of quick Google searches show the Suburban — whose webpage on the Chevy website reads “Welcome to the big life” — showing up on multiple top-10 “gas-guzzlers” lists.
The federal fuel lookup page lists multiple hybrid and electric SUVs with overall mile-per-gallon marks of 35 to 95.
The Premier version is the middle of the three Suburban makes in terms of price and luxury. Next year’s Premier starts at $66,300.
To answer Granholm’s flak’s question about minivans — the least-fuel efficient one of those still gets overall 20 miles to the gallon, rating better than her sizable ride in both gas consumed and emissions, per her federal website.