Budget and Performance

EIA receives funding for its activities with an annual appropriation from Congress. EIA's budget request falls under the purview of the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Energy and Water Development.

The fiscal year (FY) 2012 budget provides $105 million for EIA, an increase of $9.6 million, or 10 percent, from the FY 2011 level. The increased FY 2012 funding level improves EIA's ability to provide comprehensive, relevant energy statistics, analyses, and forecasts, and enables the agency to deliver this information to its customers in the most efficient and effective means. EIA will focus special attention on the following areas:

Conduct the Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS)

• Restart the CBECS, a multi-year survey effort, which is the only statistically reliable source of energy consumption, expenditures, and end-uses in U.S. commercial buildings.
• Explore the National Academy of Sciences' methodological recommendations for EIA's end-use energy consumption data program.

Promote greater energy literacy through product content and delivery innovations

• Improve the web-based delivery of energy information by offering customers enhanced interactive access to EIA's data.
• Maintain and expand EIA's energy education line, including Today in Energy, Energy Kids, Energy-in-Brief, and Energy Explained.

Upgrade EIA's energy modeling and analysis capabilities

• Enhance the National Energy Modeling System so that Federal, State, and local policymakers have access to more reliable forecasts and analyses.
• Expand the Energy and Financial Markets Initiative to improve public understanding of complex energy markets.

Restore important petroleum surveys and streamline data collection and processing

• Restore data on fuel oil and kerosene sales, and domestic oil and natural gas proven reserves.
• Test alternative sampling methodologies to reduce the number of surveys that must be collected.

Provide critical information on crude oil and product prices

• Provide information on the availability and price of petroleum and petroleum products produced in countries other than Iran to Congress as required by the National Defense Authorization Act (P.L. 112-81).

EIA's FY 2012 and FY 2013 Congressional Budget submissions can be viewed at http://www.cfo.doe.gov/crorg/cf30.htm.

Performance Measures

As a statistical survey organization, EIA has used a variety of measures to assess its performance for many years, including measures to monitor operations of specific surveys and processes. In addition, EIA currently has two principal measures that it reports on annually to assess overall agency performance.

• Customer survey results: EIA has conducted at least one agency-wide customer satisfaction survey each year since the mid-1990s. The customer survey results provide important insights into how satisfied users are with EIA information, who its customers are, how the information is used, how often they come to the site, and areas for future improvements. EIA's most recent survey, which was fielded on its website in August 2011, collected more than 8,000 responses in one week and provided a wealth of customer information. Results are consistent with historical trends — 90% or more of the customers who responded to the survey are satisfied or very satisfied with the quality of EIA information. EIA plans to conduct another customer survey in the summer of 2012.

• Meeting scheduled release dates: Many users of EIA's information rely on its data and products to be available on schedule. EIA has a consistent record of meeting its targeted release dates on at least 95% of its recurring products.

Additional information about our performance is contained in the Annual Performance Report.

For questions on the EIA Budget please contact Gale Kabat, (202) 586-2469; for questions on the Performance Measures please contact Preston Cooper, (202) 586-9839.

Last updated: April 2012