News Sheet

Energy Dominance Means Refusing to Cede NREL to China

1 hour ago
by Scott K. James
4 min read
Chris Wright speaking at an energy laboratory event with Colorado energy research context
Energy strategy is not a bumper sticker, despite Washington’s best efforts.
Written by Scott K. James

Colorado energy research should face accountability, not political theater that lets China own the next century of energy technology.

Big Pivots republishes an essay by Chuck Kutscher, a former longtime National Renewable Energy Laboratory researcher and manager, arguing that America is taking a wrong turn by pulling back from renewable-energy research while China races ahead. Kutscher writes that NREL, now renamed the National Laboratory of the Rockies, has faced mission changes, funding uncertainty, layoffs, and a proposed 52 percent budget cut.

Strip away the green sermonizing and the useful point is this: NREL is Colorado’s crown jewel in applied energy research. If America walks away from serious energy innovation, China will not send a sympathy card. They will take the market, the supply chains, the patents, the manufacturing base, and the leverage while our political class argues over bumper stickers.

This should not be hard for conservatives. Energy dominance means producing what we need now and owning the technology that powers the next century. Fossil fuels, nuclear, renewables, storage, grid technology, advanced fuels, whatever works. That is not climate panic. That is national interest with a hard hat on.

The Bullet Point Brief

  • Kutscher says NREL’s name was changed from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to the National Laboratory of the Rockies, removing the mission right out of the sign. That kind of rebrand might thrill the political comms shop, but China does not care what we call the lab. They care whether we stop competing.
  • The essay says NREL has suffered layoffs of 248 employees, funding delays, and a proposed 52 percent budget cut for fiscal year 2027. If taxpayer-funded labs are wasting money, cut the waste. But if they are producing useful American technology, do not burn down the machine because the word “renewable” gives somebody cable-news hives.
  • Kutscher lays out real achievements: solar-cell measurement standards, wind-resource work, turbine and gearbox research, lithium-ion battery thermal management, biofuels work, grid-integration tools, and widely used modeling programs like PVWatts, OpenStudio, SAM, ReEDS, and HOMER. That is not NGO day care. That is applied technical capacity, and countries with brains protect that.
  • The China numbers are the gut punch. The essay says China makes 80 percent of the world’s solar cells, 70 percent of its wind turbines, and 70 percent of its lithium batteries. It also says China accounted for 75 percent of solar and wind projects under construction globally in 2025, while the U.S. accounted for 6 percent. That is not an energy policy gap. That is a national competitiveness alarm bell.
  • The essay is strongly pro-renewable, but conservatives should not dismiss the strategic warning just because it arrives wrapped in climate language. Democrats turned energy into moral performance art. Some Republicans respond by treating anything with a solar panel like it came from a vegan struggle session. Both reactions are dumb, and dumb is expensive.

My Bottom Line

America should not cede any energy future to the Chinese Communist Party. Not oil and gas. Not nuclear. Not renewables. Not battery storage. Not grid tech. Not advanced fuels. Not the next thing none of us has heard of yet because it is still being tested by some engineer in a lab coat and bad shoes.

The question is not whether every renewable subsidy is sacred. It is not. The question is whether America wants to lead in energy technology or buy it later from Beijing at retail with strings attached. That is a dumb trade. We have enough dumb trades already.

Colorado should be proud that NREL has done useful work. That does not mean every program deserves a blank check. Taxpayer-funded labs should deliver measurable value, not become permanent employment therapy for grant writers and acronym farmers. But throwing useful American research capacity into the ditch because Washington cannot tell the difference between strategy and theater is self-sabotage wearing a flag pin.

Conservatives should be the adults here. Drill the oil. Produce the gas. Build the nuclear. Modernize the grid. Research the storage. Beat China on manufacturing. Win the patents. Own the supply chains. Energy dominance is not nostalgia. It is competence. And if Washington wants to hand the next century of energy leverage to Beijing because American politicians are busy yelling at each other about slogans, we deserve the invoice.

Source: Big Pivots

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