Adam Sieminski, as usual, didn't mince words. Days after becoming the US Energy Information Administration's new administrator, he said that these dynamic times have created new challenges for the federal energy data compiling and forecasting agency to address.
EIA faces complex tasks, he said in his keynote remarks to the Bipartisan Policy Center's June 27 conference on Understanding the New Energy Landscape. Analysts must keep up with rapid technology increases to distribute information in new ways to wider audiences, he noted.
Sieminski cited several obvious changes that have occurred in the last few years, including the nation's potential to dramatically reduce its crude oil import dependence by developing and exploiting more US crude resources onshore in tight shales and offshore in deep water.
Projected US crude production increases, combined with reduced product demand resulting from higher prices and higher fuel efficiency requirements, could make imports—which peak at 60% of total consumption in 2005 and 2006 before declining to 49% in 2010—fall further to 36% by 2035 under the EIA's 2012 Annual Energy Outlook reference case.
This already has raised a major policy question: Whether the US should begin exporting crude, Sieminski said. "The idea should not be taken off the table," he said. "Even if we remain a net importer, it still makes sense to export our new light, sweet crude and continue to import sour grades for our refineries."
EIA's statistics reveal other important underlying trends, he noted. Its latest residential energy consumption survey, for example, showed that consumers are getting more value from the energy they use because appliances and devices are more efficient.
The agency also pays attention to what other federal entities are reporting, Sieminski added. It reduced its Marcellus shale gas resource potential estimate after the US Geological Survey released new lower figures, he said.
Four main challenges
Sieminski said EIA's main challenges are to get better information faster and more economically; to promote best data management practices; to make data and analysis more available by improving dissemination platforms; and to make EIA "the place to go" both for young entry-level professionals and seniors with experience.
"We can have the best data analysis in the world but we must do a better job communicating it," he said. "That includes using every available platform, including social media."
Sieminski acknowledged that EIA will have to compete with other federal agencies for funding from an increasingly shrinking federal budget.
"The reality is the country is under a lot of economic pressure and everyone has to feel some pain," he said. "It's essential for people who use EIA's information to let policymakers know how important it is."
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