"The DOE secretary’s proposed budget would slash research programs and boost efforts “to reindustrialize America, to win the race on AI, and to stop the huge upward pressure on electricity prices.”" 

"The Department of Energy’s world-class laboratories are poised for dramatic changes.

The Trump administration’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal would slash major programs at the labs, which have been cornerstones of U.S. research for decades, tracing back to the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. DOE controls 17 national labs across the country.

Those proposed cuts come as Energy Secretary Chris Wright pledges a federal focus on artificial intelligence, fusion energy and other areas of potential life-changing scientific breakthroughs in the coming years and decades.

Speaking at the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown, West Virginia, on Wednesday, Wright touted the lab’s research to boost rare earth mining in the U.S. and improve industrial processes for ammonia production. He also called for a new wave of big energy infrastructure projects."

Brian Dabbs and Christa Marshall report for E&E News June 26, 2025. [2]