A key driver of U.S. renewable power analysis is now referred to as the Nationwide Laboratory of the Rockies.
The Trump administration has renamed the Nationwide Renewable Vitality Laboratory, now calling it the Nationwide Laboratory of the Rockies, marking an identification shift for the Golden, Colorado establishment that has been a worldwide chief in wind, photo voltaic and different renewable power analysis.
“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,” mentioned Jud Virden, laboratory director, in an announcement.
He didn’t specify what this “broader applied energy mission” would imply for the lab’s applications or its workers of about 4,000.
The renaming is the newest in a sequence of actions by the Trump administration to deemphasize or minimize the components of the federal authorities that help renewable power, whereas additionally increasing federal help for fossil fuels.
A lab spokesman had no extra details about whether or not there can be adjustments to applications or headcount on the lab.
Invoice Ritter, a Democrat who was governor of Colorado from 2007 to 2011, mentioned it’s affordable to fret that the identify change alerts that the federal authorities is abandoning the lab’s standing as a world chief in renewable power analysis.
Vitality Secretary Chris Wright, proven in June.
“It’s an iconic research facility,” he mentioned.
Underscoring this level, he recalled a visit to Israel whereas he was governor.
“The head of their renewable energy laboratory said, ‘I have nothing to tell you, because you come from the place that has the best renewable energy laboratory in the world,’” Ritter mentioned.
After leaving workplace, he based the Heart for the New Vitality Economic system at Colorado State College, which focuses on power coverage analysis, and is now a marketing consultant on power enterprise and coverage.
Based mostly on this expertise, he thinks that something the Trump administration does to divert from the lab’s mission is dangerous to america’ capability to stay a serious participant within the power financial system of the close to future.
“We’ll no longer be competitive in renewables research with China or India or other countries that are still heading toward the renewable energy transition at a very fast pace,” he mentioned.
Folks with shut ties to the lab weren’t shocked by the identify change, given the administration’s broader objectives.
“In the early days of DOGE people there were whispering about a name change to avoid the ire of MAGAs,” mentioned Matt Henry, a Montana-based social scientist who labored on the lab from February 2024 to August 2025, in a submit on Bluesky. “It pissed me off—prioritizing the preservation of the institution at the expense of its [stated] mission? So disappointing.”
He was referring to Elon Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity, which sought to chop federal spending within the early months of the Trump administration. The time period MAGA refers to President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan and motion.
Dustin Mulvaney, a San Jose State College environmental research professor, mentioned if the identify change is an indication of a big change within the lab’s work, it could be “like losing several major land grant research universities all at once.”
Mulvaney has achieved initiatives in partnership with individuals on the lab. An essential a part of the establishment’s work, he mentioned, is that its analysis is free and accessible to the general public, serving to companies and universities that will not be capable of afford the work of personal analysis corporations.
The lab’s mission has included consulting to assist communities profit from new power applied sciences, and guarantee easy transitions away from fossil fuels.
Robust winds kick up mud at a pure fuel facility in New Mexico in Could.
This work meant that the lab was out of step with an administration that has mentioned it disagrees with the thought of a transition away from fossil fuels and has sought to impede funding and growth of renewable power.
The lab was established in 1974 because the Photo voltaic Vitality Analysis Institute, a part of a legislation signed by President Gerald Ford to facilitate options to importing oil from the Center East, in accordance with a historical past on the lab’s web site. The U.S. was struggling by excessive gasoline costs amid tensions with oil-producing nations equivalent to Saudi Arabia.
“The energy crisis we face today is unlike the crisis that gave rise to NREL,” mentioned Audrey Robertson, assistant secretary of power, in an announcement. “We are no longer picking and choosing energy sources. 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.”
In 1977, the federal authorities chosen Golden, Colorado, as the situation for the lab. In 1991, the Photo voltaic Vitality Analysis Institute turned the Nationwide Renewable Vitality Laboratory, a part of a change by the administration of President George H. W. Bush that additionally elevated the establishment to turn out to be a part of the nation’s nationwide lab system.
However the lab’s historical past has additionally included funds cuts and durations when its work fell out of favor with presidential administrations, together with layoffs and funding cuts below President Ronald Reagan. Trump proposed substantial cuts throughout his first time period, however Congress retained a lot of the funding.
The Trump administration’s funds proposal, issued in Could, requires cuts throughout non-defense discretionary spending, together with on power analysis, however the funds course of remains to be underway.
