Trump administration renames Colorado’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory – The Denver Post
Federal officials on Monday renamed the National Renewable Energy Laboratory — which is headquartered in Golden — and removed any mention of renewable energy.
The decades-old energy research hub is now called the National Laboratory of the Rockies, Department of Energy officials said in a news release.
“We are no longer picking and choosing energy sources,” Assistant Energy Secretary Audrey Robertson said in the release. “Our highest priority is to invest in the scientific capabilities that will restore American manufacturing, drive down costs, and help this country meet its soaring energy demand.”
The national lab was created in the fallout of the 1973 oil crisis, which spiked the price of oil and limited imports to the United States. The lab was first named the Solar Energy Research Institute under President Gerald Ford, a Republican, and in 1991 it was renamed the National Renewable Energy Laboratory by President George H.W. Bush, also a Republican.
The Trump administration laid off more than 100 workers at NREL’s Golden campus in May, and it has sought to significantly cut back on solar and wind power research as it reduces spending on renewable energy and eliminates programs aimed at addressing climate change.
“Of course the Trump administration is picking and choosing winners,” said Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities, a Denver-based nonpartisan conservation and advocacy organization. “Donald Trump has a pathological vendetta against wind energy, and he’s determined to make every American pay more for electricity as a result. This renaming exercise is more proof that the Trump administration will always put ideology over common sense.”
The laboratory’s website on Monday evening included a logo at the top with the new name, though the content of the pages continued to reference the previous name.
“This new name embraces a broader applied energy mission entrusted to us by the Department of Energy to deliver a more affordable and secure energy future for all,” Jud Virden, laboratory director of the National Laboratory of the Rockies, said in the release.
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