The National Laboratory of the Rockies let go 134 employees on Monday, the second time in less than a year that the facility formerly known as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or NREL, has terminated staff.
David Glickson, a spokesman for the National Laboratory of the Rockies, told The Denver Post late Monday afternoon that the eliminated positions were in both research and operations. The lab operates under the U.S. Department of Energy and its main location is the 327-acre campus in Golden.
The lab also runs the National Wind Technology Center along Colorado 128 in Boulder County, where workers provide technical support needed to develop new wind turbine designs.
“These actions were taken to adjust to existing and projected funding levels and alignment with DOE priorities,” Glickson said. “We recognize the meaningful contributions of those impacted and the role they have played in advancing the laboratory’s work.”
An exact breakdown of where the cuts were made across the organization were not yet available, Glickson said, but he told the Post “it is fair to say that the large percentage of them will be in Golden because that is where the large percentage of our staff work.”
The National Laboratory of the Rockies also has offices in Washington, D.C., and California and a research site in Alaska, Glickson said. The national lab’s website says it has nearly 4,000 employees, including postdocs, researchers and interns.
U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, whose district in Congress includes Golden, ripped into the Trump administration for its decision to cut more staff at the national lab.
“Donald Trump has consistently put our federal workforce on the chopping block,” the two-term Democrat said in a text message Monday evening. “These are people who work to make energy more affordable, conduct groundbreaking climate research, and keep our state up and running.”
She called the employees at the National Laboratory of the Rockies “some of our country’s brightest minds.”
“Trump’s backwards agenda is going to undo the progress we’ve made to combat the climate crisis and have cascading effects on our economy,” Pettersen wrote. “I’m deeply sorry to the employees whose livelihoods are now in jeopardy.”
In May, the Trump administration slashed 114 positions at what was then known as the NREL campus in Golden. It renamed the lab in December, stripping the word “renewable” from its title, with Assistant Energy Secretary Audrey Robertson saying at the time, “we are no longer picking and choosing energy sources.”
A few months into Trump’s second term, the administration proposed slashing billions of dollars in federal funding for 2026, targeting projects such as renewable energy research and eliminating programs designed to combat climate change.
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 initially 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 national lab has a wide array of laboratories working within it, including sites focused on research in advanced optical materials, fuel synthesis catalysis, hydrogen safety sensor testing, renewable fuels and lubricants and solar radiation.
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