"Energy Information Agency Feels Budget Ax"

"The federal government’s ability to gather and analyze energy data and produce market forecasts will be significantly impaired by the recently enacted budget cuts, the administrator of the Energy Information Administration said.

The agency’s 2011 funding levels were cut by 14 percent, or $15.2 million, in a short-term budget deal signed into law earlier this month. Since the fiscal year is more than half over, the cuts will effectively run twice as deep.

Critics of the cuts say that at a time of acute concern over rising oil and gasoline prices, scaling back data collection and analysis of domestic crude and natural gas reserves and the role of financial speculators in energy markets is a mistake."

John Collins Rudolf reports for the New York Times April 29, 2011.