December 02, 2025 09:43 AM UTC

The Great MAGA Erasure Comes For NREL

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Sam Brasch reports for Colorado Public Radio, yesterday the Department of Energy led by Colorado frackvangelist Chris Wright, announced a rebranding of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden as the National Laboratory of the Rockies–deleting what has been the founding mission of NREL since its original founding as the Solar Energy Research Institution almost fifty years ago:

In a press release published Monday, the U.S. Department of Energy claimed the name change was effective immediately and would be reflected in all future communications. The website itself also already bears the new name. By excising any mention of renewable energy, the announcement said the new name would reflect “the Trump Administration’s broader visions for the lab’s applied energy research.”

“For decades, this laboratory and its scientific capabilities have pushed the boundaries of what’s possible and delivered impact to the nation,” said lab director Jud Virden in the announcement. “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.”

Colorado Sun:

“The energy crisis we face today is unlike the crisis that gave rise to NREL,” assistant secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson said, referring to the 1973 oil crisis in a release posted on the website that at least through Monday night still was using the “nrel.gov” web address. “We are no longer picking and choosing energy sources,” she wrote.

Much like the Trump administration’s policing of museums and national parks for content they consider insufficiently patriotic, rebranding NREL to remove its original mission of renewable energy research from its name is another revisionist imposition by the MAGA movement on the rest of the nation. Polling shows that the public supports the transition to clean energy by lopsided margins, including 66% of Coloradans.

Clean energy wasn’t the issue that handed Trump the presidency for a second term, and Trump won despite his idiotically passionate contempt for renewable energy–unhinged rhetoric that makes even unabashed fossil fuel cheerleaders like Chris Wright blush. Caught in the middle are swing-district Republicans like Rep. Gabe Evans, who pretend to support renewable energy projects in their districts, but dare not criticize the administration’s irrational position on the issue. Unfortunately for Evans, now that the clean energy agenda voters have supported for decades is under threat from an administration either too ignorant or bought off by the oil and gas industry (or both) to prioritize it, arrogant moves like this are only going to add to voters’ anger going into next year’s elections.

Also, it’s not going to work. As surely as Mile High Stadium will always be Mile High Stadium, NREL will always be NREL.