Abstract:
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The Energy Information Administration (EIA) has in recent years faced significant challenges to the coverage and quality of its data collections. Most notably, the deregulation of the natural gas and electricity industries has changed the data collection landscape significantly. There are new companies that have little or no experience in reporting economic data to the government. Companies have downsized and reorganized, losing some of their data reporting capabilities in the process. Data that was once viewed as in the public domain in the regulatory environment are now viewed as business sensitive and confidential. Companies such as regulated utilities that could once report on energy operations from production to consumption, along with the corresponding price and cost data, can now report only for smaller segments of the business. Gaps in data coverage have emerged in both volume and price, and they continue to grow. Finally, issues of competition in energy markets have joined with environmental issues is creating new needs for data. This paper focuses the challenges faced by our statistical agency, and its impact on data quality.
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