Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Energy Information Administration collects, analyzes, and disseminates energy data and projections for the United States federal government. It covers coal, petroleum, natural gas, electric, renewable, and nuclear energy. Its products include weekly market reports, long-range outlooks, and surveys of residential and commercial energy use.
The EIA was formally established by Section 205 of the Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977, Public Law 95-91. It built on the Federal Energy Administration created by the Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974, which itself was a response to the oil market disruption of 1973.
By law, the EIA's administrator is not required to obtain approval from any other officer or employee of the United States government before publishing statistical or forecasting reports. Section 205(d) of the Department of Energy Organization Act specifically prohibits executive branch officials from reviewing or blocking EIA publications. The agency neither formulates nor advocates any policy positions.
The EIA has approximately 325 federal employees and operated on a budget of $126.8 million in fiscal year 2021. It is located in Washington, D.C., and is part of the U.S. Department of Energy.
The Weekly Petroleum Status Report is an EIA publication released every Wednesday at 10:30 AM Eastern Time, with a full version following at 1 PM Eastern. It provides estimates of crude oil and petroleum products in storage and figures on U.S. oil production. Oil prices have been known to move by several percentage points immediately after its release.
Yes. In 2015, the Advanced Energy Economy Institute criticized the EIA's Annual Energy Outlook 2015 report for consistently underestimating renewable energy growth rates. The AEE noted that average wind power purchase agreements were already at $24 per megawatt-hour in 2013, while the EIA's estimated cost for solar PV in 2020 was $125 per megawatt-hour. The same criticism has been repeated every year since.