The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) laid off over 100 workers at the Golden campus Monday amidst potential budget cuts proposed by President Donald Trump’s administration.

NREL fired 114 employees, both in research and operations, from the Golden location, according to an email from an NREL spokesperson. The layoffs were due to a “complex financial and operational landscape shaped by the issuance of stop work orders from federal agencies, new federal directives and budgetary shifts,” the spokesperson said.

The NREL employs over 3,600 employees at campuses in Washington D.C., Golden, Arvada and Fairbanks, Alaska, according to its website. 

The collection of campuses acts as the “the U.S. Department of Energy’s primary national laboratory for energy systems research and development,” according to the website.

The layoffs come directly after Trump’s administration proposed on Friday the cutting of billions of dollars in federal funding next year for projects including renewable energy and electric vehicle chargers, and gutting programs aimed at curbing climate change.

The proposal to Congress was part of a wider request to cut $163 billion in 2026 federal spending, slashing more than a fifth of non-military spending.

The energy budget proposal will cancel around $15 billion in Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) Green New Deal funding initially purposed for “unreliable renewable energy, removing carbon dioxide from the air and other costly technologies that burden ratepayers and consumers,” the administration wrote in the budget proposal. 

The administration called the Green New Deal the “Green New Scam” in the proposal.

While the NREL is not directly noted in the fact sheet, the administration did propose $2.5 billion in cuts to the Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) program, saying that the program “is also responsible for outlandish regulations that drive up costs for American families, like banning gas stoves and incandescent light bulbs. The Budget proposal refocuses spending on research and development, technologies improving baseload power, and bioenergy, while saving taxpayers over $2.5 billion.”

The DOE directly funds the NREL’s offices.

The plan reorients DOE’s funding toward research and development of technologies that could produce an abundance of oil, gas, coal and critical minerals, nuclear reactors and advanced nuclear fuels, the White House said without further details.

“We appreciate their meaningful contributions to the laboratory,” the NREL spokesperson said. “NREL’s mission continues to be critical to achieve an affordable and secure energy future. We are grateful for the dedication and commitment of our staff as we continue to advance the laboratory’s work.”

Reuters contributed to this report