WASHINGTON (MNI) – The following list of Energy Information
Administration data reports being eliminated because of budget cuts was
published Thursday:

Energy Data and Analysis Programs Necessitated by FY 2011 Funding Cut

WASHINGTON, DC – The final fiscal year (FY) 2011 budget provides
$95.4 million for the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), a
reduction of $15.2 million, or 14 percent, from the FY 2010 level.

“The lower FY 2011 funding level will require significant cuts in
EIA’s data, analysis, and forecasting activities,” said EIA
Administrator Richard Newell. “EIA had already taken a number of
decisive steps in recent years to streamline operations and enhance
overall efficiency, and we will continue to do so in order to minimize
the impact of these cuts at a time when both policymaker and public
interest in energy issues is high,” he said.

EIA must act quickly to realize the necessary spending reductions
during the present fiscal year, which is already more than half over.
The changes in products and services identified below reflect initial
steps to reduce the cost of EIA’s program. Additional actions are being
evaluated and may result in further adjustments to EIA’s data and
analysis activities in the near future.

Initial adjustments to EIA’s data, analysis, and forecasting
programs include the following:

Oil and Natural Gas Information

–Do not prepare or publish 2011 edition of the annual data release
on U.S. proved oil and natural gas reserves.

–Curtail efforts to understand linkages between physical energy
markets and financial trading.

—Suspend analysis and reporting on the market impacts of
planned refinery outages.

–Curtail collection and dissemination of monthly state-level data
on wholesale petroleum product prices, including gasoline, diesel,
heating oil, propane, residual fuel oil, and kerosene. Also, terminate
the preparation and publication of the annual petroleum marketing data
report and the fuel oil and kerosene sales report.

–Suspend auditing of data submitted by major oil and natural gas
companies and reporting on their 2010 financial performance through
EIA’s Financial Reporting System.

–Reduce collection of data from natural gas marketing companies.

–Cancel the planned increase in resources to be applied to
petroleum data quality issues.

–Reduce data collection from smaller entities across a range of
EIA oil and natural gas surveys.

Electricity, Renewables, and Coal Information

–Reduce data on electricity exports and imports.

–Terminate annual data collection and report on geothermal space
heating (heat pump) systems.

–Terminate annual data collection and report on solar thermal
systems.

–Reduce data collection from smaller entities across a range
of EIA electricity and coal surveys.

–Consumption, Efficiency, and International Energy Information*

–Suspend work on EIA’s 2011 Commercial Buildings Energy
Consumption Survey (CBECS), the Nation’s only source of statistical data
for energy consumption and related characteristics of commercial
buildings.

–Terminate updates to EIA’s /International Energy Statistics/.

Energy Analysis Capacity

–Halt preparation of the 2012 edition of EIA’s International
Energy Outlook.

–Suspend further upgrades to the National Energy Modeling System
(NEMS). NEMS is the country’s preeminent tool for developing projections
of U.S. energy production, consumption, prices, and technologies and its
results are widely used by policymakers, industry, and others in making
energy-related decisions. A multiyear project to replace aging NEMS
components will be halted.

–Eliminate annual published inventory of /Emissions of
Greenhouse Gases in the United States/.

-Limit responses to requests from policymakers for special
analyses.

In addition to these program changes, EIA will cut live telephone
support at its Customer Contact Center.

The changes outlined above and the additional actions that may be
required to align EIA’s program with its FY 2011 funding level are
undoubtedly painful for both users of EIA energy information and EIA’s
dedicated Federal and contractor staff. We will work with stakeholders
to minimize the disruption associated with the changes identified above
and will issue specific guidance to affected survey respondents soon. We
remain committed to maintaining the bulk of EIA’s comprehensive energy
information program and strengthening it where possible, consistent with
the available level of resources.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

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