'That is hilarious': Energy Sec. Granholm laughs when asked what her plan is to boost US oil production

Americans have been feeling pain at the pump due to higher gas prices, but when Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm was asked what her plan is to boost U.S. oil production, she laughed at the question.

"That is hilarious. Would that I had the magic wand on this. As you know, of course, oil is a global market. It is controlled by a cartel. That cartel is called OPEC," she said, noting that OPEC on Thursday chose not to boost production further than what had already been planned.

Rather than ramping up output, OPEC+ is just planning to "rollover its August program to gradually increase oil production by 400,000 barrels per day each month," according to CNBC.

Bloomberg's Tom Keene pressed the issue further by asking, "What is the Biden plan to jumpstart energy production across America?"

Granholm responded by discussing the need to transition toward clean energy, but acknowledged that this is "obviously a longer-term strategy."

"The Biden plan is to diversify and to make sure that we move in a direction of clean energy where we're not reliant upon cartels and we're not reliant upon geopolitical adversaries who may be creating chokepoints for our ability and our people to be able to access energy," she said.

Biden Is Looking at Possible SPR Release: Granholmwww.youtube.com

Some Americans have attributed blame to the Biden administration for rising fuel costs.

While speaking to another interviewer on the same Bloomberg program, Granholm said, "We can't just produce oil for the United States. It is on a global market."

"There are 23 million acres of public lands — that includes offshore and onshore — where there are leases ... that are not being used right now by oil and gas companies," Granholm said.

"It is not the president's doing that is causing the oil and gas companies right now to decide to slow down," she claimed.

CNBC reported:

Asked by CNBC about the U.S.'s relationship with Saudi Arabia, the de-facto leader of OPEC, after the output decision, Granholm said: "In some places, we have strong relationships and in some places we wish our allies would move a little faster."

"The message is we need to increase supply at this moment so that people will not be hurt during the winter months," she told CNBC's Steve Sedgwick on Friday at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.