Only a week after George Bush proclaimed that we were “addicted to oil”, the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)–the nation’s premeir renewable energy lab–has bee forced to reduce its staff to make up for a $28 million budget shortfall. Programs that will be affected include biomass, hydrogen and basic research.

The NREL has been hit with a double blow: slashes in its budget by the Bush administration, and Congressional earmarks that mandate DOE spending in other areas.

The federal government is massively disfunctional under this administration. Perhaps you’ve noticed. This is another blatent example; the President’s most notable line in his entire state of the union speach is undercut a week later by his own budget.

Worse yet, where is the opposition party calling the administration on it?