Senate energy panel to examine EIA's revised Annual Energy Outlook

March 7, 2008
Mar. 4: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing to hear testimony from Guy F. Caruso, who leads the US Energy Information Administration, about the federal energy analysis and forecasting service's revised 2008 Annual Energy Outlook. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in Room 366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mar. 4: The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing to hear testimony from Guy F. Caruso, who leads the US Energy Information Administration, about the federal energy analysis and forecasting service's revised 2008 Annual Energy Outlook.
The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in Room 366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Why it matters: EIA released an initial version of its 2008 Annual Energy Outlook in early December, but it did not include analysis of impacts from H.R. 6, the Energy Independence and Security Act, which became law on Dec. 19. The measure's two main provisions increasing motor vehicle fuel efficiency requirements and doubling the federal ethanol fuels mandate undoubtedly will be contained in the revised 2008 AEO.

Committee members also will be likely to ask Caruso about EIA's gasoline price forecasts, which predict that the average US retail price for unleaded regular will reach $3.40 per gallon by late spring before receding. Other analysts have said that the price peak will be around $4/gal, which was the figure many US House members used in debating H.R. 5351 prior to its passage on Feb. 27.

Several members of this Senate committee support the House bill's concept of moving $18 billion of financial incentives from oil and gas producers to renewable fuels and energy conservation programs. They can be expected to ask Caruso about alternative fuels' potential role in reducing oil imports and cutting greenhouse gases.

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected]