Improvement of Federal Capabilities To Collect and Analyze Energy Data

The Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs studied the federal government's capability for collecting and analyzing energy data. GAO concluded that legislation would be required to establish a comprehensive energy data system and that responsibility for developing that system should be placed where it will not be influenced by energy policy analysis and formulation. Five of the 18 energy-related bills enacted in the last 2 years have specific mandates for energy data programs. In general, legislation gave the Federal Energy Administration (FEA) significant data collection responsibilities and established it as a focal point for federal energy data. However, FEA does not have authority to influence the energy data collection efforts of other agencies, although the agencies have recognized the problems of proliferation, incompatibility, duplicative effort, and respondent burden. The best long-term organizational approach to the solution of energy problems would be the establishment of a Department of Energy and Natural Resources with a separate bureau of energy data collection. Short of establishing a new department, other organizational alternatives include building on FEA capability by expanding its energy data role and ensuring the independence and objectivity of data collection activites, or creating a separate agency for data collection activities.