Are the Government’s Energy Statistics Reliable Enough?

Everyone relies on Energy Department numbers, but experts say they can be incomplete or inaccurate

How much oil does the United States import each year? How costly would a cap on carbon dioxide emissions be? How quickly did gasoline demand fall in 2008?

These questions lie at the heart of the country’s urgent debates over alternative energy, and the answers are being shaped by statistics that come almost exclusively from the Energy Information Administration. Long considered “the gold standard” of energy information, the numbers from EIA, which is run by the Department of Energy, are regularly cited by the media and politicians alike.


And yet today, with energy at the top of the Obama administration’s agenda, there are growing concerns that the agency’s statistics are incomplete, outdated, or, in some cases, inaccurate. Budget shortfalls, large staff cuts, and neglect under past administrations, observers say, are compromising both the quality and quantity of EIA’s data, leaving the agency frustratingly handcuffed as energy markets are moving faster and becoming increasingly complex.

US News & World Report