WASHINGTON — Once faced with devastating cuts, a research facility in Colorado now looks as if it will emerge unscathed in the federal government’s next budget.

Included in Congress’ $1.3 trillion spending plan for the rest of the fiscal year is $2.3 billion for a program within the U.S. Department of Energy that provides the bulk of the funding for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden.

That’s a roughly $230 million increase from what the department got the last time for its Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and about four times what President Donald Trump once considered, according to draft documents obtained by The Washington Post.

The threat set off alarm bells two months ago in Colorado, as NREL is an economic engine in the state that employees about 1,700 workers and hundreds of contractors, interns and visiting researchers, who all contribute to the facility’s mission of developing alternatives to fossil fuels.

But Congress opted to keep its funding relatively level in its federal budget plan plan that is all but certain to become law by week’s end.

“NREL provides thousands of good-paying jobs for our community and is an economic engine for our state with an estimated $700 million annual economic impact in Colorado,” said U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Arvada, in a statement.

“As one of 33 federal labs in Colorado, NREL also plays a critical role in partnering with the private sector to commercialize products and advance new, clean-energy technologies,” he added.



