$5 million - just enough to rehire

Funding from DOE to restore 32 jobs; Bush visits lab today

Gargi Chakrabarty, Rocky Mountain News

Published February 21, 2006 at midnight

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The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden received $5 million on Monday from the Department of Energy to help offset the nearly $28 million budget cut it sustained in the current fiscal year.

The DOE's gesture, announced late Sunday is welcome but barely sufficient to rehire the 32 employees laid off earlier this month, NREL officials said.

Today, President Bush is scheduled to tour the lab and participate in a panel on energy conservation and efficiency. The tour is the last leg of Bush's two-day visit to three states - Wisconsin, Michigan and Colorado - to promote his administration's focus on renewable energy.

"The president's visit sends a powerful message to the lab that its work on these technologies is a very important component of the administration's energy research and development policy," said Bob Noun, NREL's deputy associate director.

NREL officials say the newly restored money is welcomed but is not enough to restore the canceled contracts and subcontracts with private research collaborators, or the funding caps on various programs, that the lab had initiated earlier this month.

"With the $5 million that DOE is giving us, we will be able to rehire all the people we laid off," said NREL spokesman George Douglas. "But the canceled contracts, subcontracts, and the rest of the budget cuts we did will remain in place."

Douglas said the lab, owned by the DOE, has directed the department managers Monday to inform the nearly three-dozen terminated employees about their job restorations. But the process could take longer because Monday was a national holiday and the lab was closed.

Also, the lab doesn't have an employee rehiring procedure in place and would have to speedily develop one - possibly by the end of today.

"This is unusual, laying people off and rehiring them back," Douglas said.

"It doesn't happen very often, if ever. So it's not that procedures already are in place."

Douglas speculated that the rehired employees could be back at work as early as Wednesday. Meanwhile, some criticized the Bush administration for not improving the lab's budget, even as the president touts alternative energy. In his recent State of the Union address, Bush vowed to break the nation's "addiction to oil," often imported from unstable countries.

"I don't know if (NREL's job restorations) are politically motivated or not, but it would have been embarrassing for the president to come in the middle of the layoffs," said Matt Baker, executive director of Environment Colorado, during a press conference on Monday. "I hope he comes to the lab six or seven more times to take its budget back to where it was when his administration came to power."

Baker pointed out that the lab's budget, about 98 percent of which comes from the DOE and the rest from technical fees and other sources, has been falling in recent years.

In dollars not adjusted for inflation, NREL's budget is $174 million for fiscal 2006, compared with $201 million in 2005, $211.9 million in 2004 and $229.8 million in 2003.

"President Bush admits that America has an oil addiction but fails to offer the immediate solutions that already exist today," said Dave Bowden, president of the Colorado Renewable Energy Society. "Instead, we are short-changing programs that are key to our future energy security and quality American jobs: renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development."

Colorado Democrats said the timing of Bush's visit to NREL smacked of political maneuvering rather than environmental resolve.

"I appreciated the president's remarks focusing on renewable energy in his State of the Union address," said Ed Perlmutter, who is running for Congress in the lab's district. "But he needs to put the money where his mouth is and not only restore funding today but increase funding for renewable energy research at NREL."

Peggy Lamm, who faces Perlmutter and Herb Rubenstein in the Democratic primary for the 7th District, challenged Bush and Congressman Bob Beauprez to restore the $28 million in cuts at NREL, fully fund other renewable energy programs and require new cars to get at least 40 miles per gallon by 2015.

Beauprez, a Republican who is vacating his 7th District seat to run for governor, thanked Secretary Bodman Monday for restoring the jobs at NREL.

"I've worked hard to try to right this wrong, and I want to thank Secretary Bodman and his staff for helping us ensure NREL is able to go forward and fully carry on its mission as our country's premier renewable energy research facility," Beauprez said.

Carol Tombari, who got laid off by NREL two weeks ago, said she read about the job restorations Monday morning in local newspapers.

Tombari, who was a senior project leader in the lab's local and state initiatives program, doesn't know if she will be hired back in the same position.

Still, she said she was exited and called it "wonderful and totally unexpected news."

Her colleague, Tina Larney, who also was laid off, wasn't so upbeat.

"I am skeptical about it - I don't know if I will be hired back for the same job," Larney said. "It will be weird going back to work, pretending nothing has changed."

chakrabartyg@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2976 News staff writer Chris Barge contributed to this report.

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