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EIA chief: Sequester's ax spares key energy data reports
HOUSTON — The head of the Energy Department’s statistical arm said that the across-the-board spending cuts better known as “sequestration” won’t force the agency to cease its closely watched weekly data reports on petroleum products.
But Adam Sieminski, the head of the Energy Information Administration, said the cuts will nonetheless put pressure on the agency.
“This time, at least for right now, none of our ... critical weekly reports like the weekly petroleum status report and the natural gas storage report are threatened,” he told The Hill on the sidelines of a major energy conference here.
“But it is very serious, and the longer it goes on, the greater pressure it will put on us to do what we did in 2011, which was to try and prioritize the output and stop doing something,” Sieminski added at the IHS CERAWeek event.
Budget cuts in fiscal 2011 prompted EIA to announce it would pare back a number of data and analysis programs, which are described here.
It also prepares legislative analyses for lawmakers, among many other activities.
“Our ability to deliver on some of the things that we want to do is going to depend on having that issue resolved,” Sieminski said of sequestration, which began this month.
The cuts are forcing a 9 percent cut in non-defense discretionary spending during the remainder of the current fiscal year, but they won’t end there unless lawmakers and the White House agree on a deal to end the blunt reductions.
