Trump removes the word "renewable" from the title of U.S. Energy Lab

In a latest attempt to devalue renewable energy sources like solar and wind, the Trump administration renamed an energy laboratory to remove the term "renewable".

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado will be known now as the National Laboratory of the Rockies. This was announced on the lab's website late Monday.

It is one of 17 Energy Department laboratories that also conducts energy efficiency research. The U.S. leaders who set it up included two of President Donald Trump’s Republican colleagues.

In the 1970s, after the Arab Oil Embargo damaged the U.S. Economy, former President Gerald Ford founded the Solar Energy Research Institute. Former Texas oilman George H. W. Bush renamed NREL in 1991.

The U.S. Energy Department stated that the name change reflects a broader vision of the administration for the applied energy research lab.

This move is in line with Trump's other actions regarding wind and solar energy, such as stopping work on offshore wind farms or adding new regulatory hurdles.

In July, the administration announced that all decisions related to solar energy and wind projects on federal land will be reviewed by Doug Burgum’s Interior Department to stop what they called preferential treatment of renewable energy sources.

Michael Bennet, a Democrat from Colorado, said that despite the change in name, the lab should keep working on energy innovation and lead the global energy transformation.

Bennet stated that "President Trump’s slogan 'Drill Baby Drill,' will not solve the nation's most complicated energy challenges." (Reporting and editing by Alistair Bell; Timothy Gardner)

(source: Reuters)