President Bush is scheduled to visit my part of the world today. He’s coming to Golden, Colorado – just outside Denver – to visit the National Renewable Energy Lab [1], in what some see as an attempt to save face. Bush talked of ending America’s oil addiction in his State of the Union speech – which was followed in the news cycle by the announcement of more than 30 job cuts at NREL.

But yesterday, the Secretary of Energy ordered the jobs restored [2], and reinstated a fraction – $5 million out of $28 million – of the funds that were slashed from NREL’s budget. Congress cut DOE’s budget for renewable energy this year by 35%.

Senator Wayne Allard of Colorado took at least partial credit [3] for restoring the jobs at NREL. A representative from the Colorado Renewable Energy Society told the Rocky Mountain News that Bush’s visit “sounds very political.”

An NREL official told the newspaper he believes the lab – which researches renewable energy technologies including wind and solar power – will see its budget grow in the coming years. But the head of the National Environmental Trust told the AP he believes Bush’s stated interest in renewable energy is merely a reaction to polling numbers.

Photo credit: NREL [4]