By Benoît Morenne
The Energy Department is renaming its National Renewable Energy Laboratory to the National Laboratory of the Rockies, a symbolic rebranding of the storied institution to align it with the Trump administration's focus on fossil fuels.
The department said in a press release Monday that the name change reflects the Trump administration's broader vision for the lab's applied energy research.
The rebranding is the latest example of the breadth of the administration's campaign against renewables. It comes on the heels of the elimination of two of DOE's biggest offices that funneled billions of dollars into clean-energy projects.
Assistant Secretary Audrey Robertson, a former oil-and-gas executive, said in the release that "we are no longer picking and choosing energy sources." She said DOE's highest priority is to invest in scientific capabilities to restore American manufacturing, drive down costs and help meet soaring energy demand.
The new name "honors the natural splendor of the lab's surroundings," the release noted.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, based in Golden, Colo., was established in 1977 as the Solar Energy Research Institute with a mission to equip the U.S. with clean sources of energy, diminish its reliance on foreign oil and avoid the type of disruptions the country experienced during the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s. President George H.W. Bush elevated it to national laboratory status in 1991 and renamed it to reflect an expanded focus.
The lab has worked with companies, universities and other laboratories and pioneered research into wind turbine blade design that set the standard for efficiency in the broader wind industry, according to DOE. The laboratory is home to the National Center for Photovoltaics, which was created to help the U.S. solar industry maintain a competitive position.
Last year, the institution conducted research on how extreme weather and age are affecting the photovoltaic fleet; detailed the benefits of heat pumps in a report; studied electric vehicle charging infrastructure; and worked on an effort to improve the measurement, reporting, and verification of carbon dioxide removal technologies. It also explored ways to manufacture wind blades that can be recycled.
These efforts appear at odds with the Trump administration's hostility toward renewable energy and energy-efficient appliances. The president's One Big Beautiful Bill Act ended tax breaks to encourage Americans to buy EVs and adopt heat pumps and solar panels. His administration has waged a war on offshore wind, and picked climate skeptics to write a report that challenged decades of scientific finding that a warming planet poses a risk to human health.
It has also expunged references to renewables. Earlier this year, it changed the name of Solar Decathlon, a collegiate competition where students design solar-powered houses, to BuildingsNEXT.
Robertson told lab staff during a Monday meeting that she doesn't like the words "clean energy" because no energy is clean, according to one participant.
"There have been and there will be pivots around how we attack certain challenges, certain problems, certain allocation of funds," she said, according to a recording shared with The Wall Street Journal.
Write to Benoît Morenne at benoit.morenne@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 01, 2025 21:03 ET (02:03 GMT)
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