We Are The Simpsons, Or Worse

I was debating whether to write this article or not. I discovered the news of NREL’s name being changed from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to the National Laboratory of the Rockies from Michael Barnard’s article about it yesterday. That article is a much more professional look at the situation and the history of the laboratory. This one is going to be a full-scale venting of how idiotic the United States has become, and particularly the orange/yellow man running the show.

First, let’s just make this point: renewable energy is dominating now. Trying to diminish it or be a laggard in adopting and promoting renewable energy is completely, fully, ridiculously idiotic.

92.5% of new power capacity added worldwide in 2024 was from renewable energy power plants. Yes, 92.5%. The majority of that (77.3%) came from solar power. Donald Trump doesn’t think solar panels work. (We’ve got a stable genius there, eh?)

Renewable energy, especially solar, is now the cheapest option for new power capacity in most places. That’s why it dominates new power capacity. It is also much quicker to build and doesn’t cause cancer, asthma, heart disease, or premature death among people living near the power plants.

So, first of all, it’s just weird, and dumb, for the Trump administration to require that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) be renamed the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR). Why would you want to go backward? Why would you want to do everything in your power to look like a technology laggard — a super-laggard for that matter — by renaming a scientific laboratory that was at the forefront of a major, wildly successful industry forming?

Also take note of this point from one of our readers, “Matthew2312,” which was added under Michael’s article:

“NREL was:

• • Started under a Republican President (Ford)
  • Elevated, expanded and renamed NREL under a Republican President (GHW Bush)
  • Significantly expanded under GW Bush’s Advanced Energy Initiative (which also yielded the 2008 Act that created EV tax credits),

“We used to be able to agree on things that were good for the country and its future. Not any more.”

Indeed. How far we’ve fallen.

Wasting time on this renaming of a laboratory that’s been in place for nearly 50 years is such a useless waste of time. For what reason? To show that you’re the king of dirty, polluting, expensive energy sources?

I almost immediately thought of Homer Simpson when I saw the news. The United States is now being run by Homer Simpson, I thought for a moment. However, I then realized I was wrong. While Homer is a caricature of an idiotic, middle-aged American man, he’s just dumb. He not an evil person who goes and tries to implement mean, vindictive, harmful policies.

The nonsense of this name change may have gotten me to write this article anyway, but I was definitely tipped over the edge when I went to the NREL website to confirm the news. They didn’t even bother to create a new logo! There’s just a blue text box at the top with simple white text saying “National Laboratory of the Rockies.” How hard is it to create a new logo? How rushed was this change? Furthermore, if you look around the site even for just a few moments, you can see “NREL” is still written in several places. Whoever was in charge of making the name change couldn’t even get the name or acronym changed consistently across the website. What a joke! Was Bart put in charge of doing the job?

That said, all is not lost. Lisa Simpson is still out there somewhere, part of our “real-life Simpsons story.” And Homer won’t be running the country forever.

This article is also being published on our Substack channel.